The Assistant
by Camouflage
Summary: With Rangeman becoming more and more successful, he and his men are having less and less time to meet new clients, run the business, and watch over Stephanie. The solution - an assistant.
1. Chapter 1

Stephanie

"Who are you?"

I didn't really mean to blurt it out like that, but I was so unused to seeing a woman at Rangeman who wasn't Ella that I momentarily thought I had walked into the wrong building.

She was wearing all black, like all Rangeman employees do, but it was different. Her silk black blouse fluttered wistfully over her tall, athletic frame as she walked towards me, long legs clad in black jeans confidently striding, languid and slow, like she was trying not to spook me.

"I'm Cam," the girl said, a bright smile stretching across her dark red lips, but not quite reaching the almond eyes, lined perfectly with wings. I never could get the winged eyeliner thing down. "You must be Stephanie. It's nice to meet you."

She stuck her hand out to me. I took it slowly, wondering if maybe there was a bomb strapped under her shirt. It seemed like there might be enough room.

"Are you looking for Ranger?" She inquired, when she realized that I wasn't going to say anything.

"Yep, sure am," I answered. "Is he in his office?" I moved to go by her, but she blocked my path. She was a few inches taller than I was, even without the chunky heel of her boots.

"Ranger is in a meeting right now," she told me. "Perhaps you would like to wait? I can let you into his apartment."

I stared at her face a little harder. It was really hard to mask my confusion so I didn't bother. I took the chance to scope her out. She was pretty. Her skin was the same color as Ranger's, though I could tell she wasn't Latina. Maybe half black? She had a smattering of freckles across a cute, upturned nose.

I drew myself a little taller, making myself all of the five foot, seven inches I had. I still barely came up to her chin. She looked down at me with a small grin on her face and I immediately felt the urge to press my stun gun to her neck.

"You can let me into his apartment? Who the hell _are_ you?" I asked again. "Are you standing in for Ella?"

"Not as such," Cam answered. "I'm new. Today is my first day. I'm Ranger's assistant."

That floored me.

"Ranger hired an assistant?"

"It appears that his client list is becoming too long for him to efficiently manage his calendar while running the business." She glided around the desk that she'd been sitting at when I walked and bent at the waist to look at her screen. "This meeting should be over in a few minutes. Would you like a glass of water? Coffee?"

I knew I should be polite. The girl was just doing her job, but I was just too shocked. Ranger hadn't mentioned that he was going to hire an assistant. Then again, Ranger doesn't mention a lot of things.

My name is Stephanie Plum. For lack of a better word, I guess you could call me a bounty hunter. I was born and raised in a small part of Trenton called the Burg, where families were large and loud and everyone knew everyone's business. My hair is brown and usually pulled back due to lack of better ideas on how to manage my curls, and my eyes are blue.

Usually I consider myself pretty attractive. I could stand to lose a few pounds, but I've been told my nose is cute. Standing next to this girl who was telling me she was Ranger's assistant didn't do a whole lot for my self-esteem. Her dark brown hair was way curlier than mine, but she had perfect blond highlights that framed her face perfectly, and her weight was distributed perfectly across her six foot frame. A perfect amount of fat rested at the boobs and hips and helped define her waist.

"Stephanie?" Cam asked, snapping me out of my assessment of her. I whipped out my cell phone and dialed Ranger's number. He answered on the third ring.

"Babe."

"When did you hire an assistant?" Ranger sighed and disconnected. I looked at Cam and could tell she was uncomfortable. A few seconds later, I heard a door open and looked down the hall. Two men came out of Ranger's office followed by Ranger himself. I could feel my doo-dah start to tingle as they advanced. As usual, Ranger looked good enough to eat with a spoon and then lick the bowl. Since this was obviously a business meeting, Rangerl wasn't dressed in the usual Rangeman fatigues. He was wearing perfectly tailored black pants and a black dress shirt that was open at the neck. No tie.

Ranger waited until his guests had exited before acknowledging me.

"Babe."

Babe could mean everything and nothing when it was coming out of Ranger's mouth. Today it was " _what are you doing here?"_

"I need to talk to you."

"I figured," Ranger said as he turned to Cam, who looked up at him from her seat at her desk. I didn't like the look on her face. It was a mixture of admiration and attention that made my eyes narrow. "Please send Pinto a follow up email and set up a time for me to go and check out his building." Cam nodded and turned her attention to her computer screen.

Satisfied that Cam would be occupied, he turned back to me and nodded towards the elevator. I turned and pressed the button, waiting for the car to take us up to the seventh floor, where Ranger had his private apartment.

"She's pretty," I murmured as soon as the doors closed.

"That's why I hired her," Ranger responded. I couldn't tell if he was joking. I was going to assume that he wasn't since Ranger never joked. "Are you jealous?"

"Me? Nope," I answered. Hopefully not too quickly. A smile tugged at the corner of Ranger's mouth as the doors opened into the Batcave. Ranger's apartment was tastefully masculine. Not that Ranger put any thought into it himself. That was all Ella. He also didn't have to think about the spread that was put out on the island in his kitchen. That was all Ella, as well.

I grabbed a sandwich that had a lot of green things on it and plopped myself on a stool.

"What's going on?" Ranger asked as he selected his own sandwich and pulled out his cell phone, presumably checking email.

"I need help," I answered.

"Why else would you be here?" Ranger inquired without looking at me. I couldn't tell if his tone was exasperated or bored. Emotions weren't Ranger's strong suit. Finally he looked up at me. "What do you need?"

"I was hoping I could utilize some Rangeman equipment," I answered. "I have a skip that keeps managing to evade me and I want to give up and just put a tracker on his car so I can find him."

"You gotta find the car to put the tracker on it, Babe," Ranger told me, the ghost of a smile still lingering on his lips. "Who is this guy?"

"Ant Genovese," I answered, "Grand Theft Auto."

"I can see where this is going," Ranger murmured as he looked back at his phone. "You want me to put a tracker on one of _my_ cars and leave it somewhere you think he might steal it." I smiled. Ranger was quick.

"I think he knows that my car is tracked. He likes to take it, but then he just leaves it in inconvenient places." Nothing worse than a criminal with a sense of humor. "Anyway, you'll get it back."

"You haven't had to borrow a car in a few months, so I can probably spare one," Ranger told me, "but it's gonna cost you." I could feel my face flush as lady town started to wake up. Being in such close proximity to Ranger's bed when he was talking about cost couldn't be good for my health. The smile that had been tugging at the corner of Ranger's mouth for the last few minutes finally won the fight. "Babe."

"What?" I asked, trying to keep my voice level.

"The next time I get you in my bed, it's not going to be because you owe me." He grabbed me by the waist and pulled me into him. "It's going to be because you asked for it." He kissed me lightly and then let go. It took everything I had to not start panting. I was considering the wisdom of asking for it when Ranger's phone started to ring.

Saved by the bell.

"Yes, Cam?" He answered, managing not to sound exasperated at all. He listened briefly and then said he would be right down. Before hanging up, he told his assistant to help me with getting the keys to one of the Mercedes in the garage. Then he hung up. "I have a meeting. Cam will give you keys and take you to your car."

"No Merry Men to help?" I asked.

"Now that I have an assistant, I doubt you'll see as much of the men. She's helped to free up their time as well." A little surprising. She must have other qualifications besides a pretty face if Ranger was willing to trust her with me. Ranger was _very_ protective. "Do you need her to drive the car somewhere for you? Or were you planning on leaving with it?"

"If she could drive it for me, that would be great," I answered. "You sure you're not too busy to spare her?" I imagine that Ranger would have rolled his eyes if that was something Ranger ever did.

"Just make sure she's back in an hour."

"You're coming with me," I said to Cam as the elevator door opened on the fifth floor, revealing her standing there with a set of keys. Cam looked to Ranger for confirmation.

"Please take the car and leave it wherever Stephanie says to leave it. I'll have Hal follow you to give you a ride back."

"Um, all right," Cam said as she reached behind her chair and grabbed her jacket – a black leather biker jacket that probably cost more than my entire wardrobe put together. "David is waiting for you in your office."

"Thank you, Cam. Let me know when you're on your way back." Cam nodded, grabbed her bag, and strode past me towards the elevator. She stood patiently waiting with perfect posture, staring forward at the door. I tried to mimic her, but it's hard to look graceful in jeans and running shoes.

As if she could tell that I was thinking about my clothes, Cam turned her head and gave me a once over. I was expecting her to say something but she didn't. Her appraisal reminded me of Ranger and I suppressed a shudder. We stepped in the elevator and I decided I couldn't be quiet anymore.

"Is Cam your whole name?"

"It's Camryn," she answered, seemingly relieved that I had broken the silence. "r-y-n."

"Cute," I said, doing my best not to sound sarcastic. "How did you get this job?"

"Ranger was looking for an assistant and I qualified," she answered. I could see why Ranger liked her. She was very buttoned up. I was going to have to ask specific questions if I wanted anything out of her.

"What makes you qualified?" I continued to press.

"Is this an interview?" she responded as the door opened and she stepped out of the elevator. Jeez. I was only trying to make conversation.

I had to move faster than usual to keep up with her long stride.

"I'm just curious," I answered. "Ranger has never hired a woman before. As far as I know, you're the first woman to step inside Rangeman besides Ella and me and I want to know what makes you special."

"I think you're reading a little too much into things," Camryn answered. "I'm not special. I'm just an assistant. Which one is your car?" I pointed at my most recent hunk of junk, a toyota Rav-4 that seemed like it was probably older than Camryn was. "Shouldn't be hard to follow. Where are we going?"

"Heading to an address in West Trenton. Are you familiar with the area?"

"Yep," Camryn responded, "but I'll follow your lead."

"Should we wait for Hal?"

"He'll be able to find us," Camryn assured me as she unlocked the door one of the Mercedes and folded her long legs into the car. I was getting the feeling that she and I were not about to become besties.

I drove Camryn to the part of West Trenton that was _almost_ really nice, but not quite far enough into the nice area to make it a desirable place to live. In fact, this was one of the more dangerous parts of town because of how decentralized it was. There was a large building that used to be a high school, God knew what it was used for now, next to a few small baseball fields where some Spanish kids were playing a game of soccer.

There were trees around, and parents with SUVs. They were trying to be normal, at least. I had first been worried that the Mercedes might have been too nice to entice Genovese to steal it, but decided it would probably work. This wasn't Stark street, after all. Most of these people didn't expect to have to deal with drug dealers to fear in their neighborhood.

Camryn parked behind me, got out, and threw me the keys.

"Do you want me to wait with you?" I asked. Just because it wasn't a scary part of town, didn't mean I wanted to leave her all alone. Especially dressed in those expensive-looking clothes. I was expecting her to coolly brush me off, but instead she thanked me and climbed into the car. I pulled away a little bit so we wouldn't look suspicious. "Are you from Trenton?" I inquired.

So sue me! I can't help if I'm curious.

"I'm from Hamilton," she answered. Hamilton Township is a suburb that shares its Western border with Trenton. It was solidly middle-class to upper middle-class. Those who could afford to moved to Princeton or West Windsor so as not to have to deal with Trenton slowly seeping out and taking over. "But I've been living in New York City for the past five years."

"What prompted the move home?" I asked.

"You can only live in New York for so long," she answered, almost too quickly.

I'm not really very good at my job, but the success I do have comes from having good instincts and the perseverance to follow them to fruition. My gut was telling me that this response seemed very rehearsed.

"Where are you living now?"

"At Rangeman, temporarily," she answered, "until I can get something more permanent. I'm looking at apartments in Princeton. I like the woods." I would love to be able to afford an apartment in Princeton. It's a small town and having an Ivy League school there meant it was cute and quaint.

I wondered for a second if Morelli would consider moving to Princeton and then squashed that thought like a bug. Didn't want to go there. It wasn't that I didn't think that he would do it – it was that I was sure he would. Princeton was the kind of place families settled down.

In the rear view mirror, I saw a black SUV pull up behind us and could see Hal in the driver seat.

"That's my ride," Cam said, "call us if he takes the bait." I nodded and thanked her, starting my car as she slammed the door.

I had no idea how to feel about her. Probably it didn't really matter how I felt. She was only Ranger's assistant, but still it was just weird to think of another woman involved in Ranger's life – and I use the word 'woman' loosely. She couldn't have been more than twenty-five years old.

I dialed Ranger, forgetting that he was in a meeting. But hell it had been about thirty minutes already. I couldn't imagine Ranger speaking to anyone for longer than thirty minutes, no longer what the topic.

"How old is Cam?" I asked when he finally picked up.

"Babe," he responded.

"I just want to know!" I answered. "I tried asking her myself but she doesn't talk a lot."

"Another one of the reasons I hired her," Ranger told me. "Why do you want to know how old she is?"

"Because I'm just curious, OK? I want to know more about her. How do we know she's not some assassin that's been sent to kill you?"

"She's twenty-four, and she's not an assassin," Ranger assured me. "Besides, any of the people who want me dead would never send someone else to do it."

"That makes me feel so much better," I scoffed.

"If you are so worried for my safety, you can always come and protect me," he suggested. "Bring your handcuffs." I could feel my face getting all red.

"Good bye," I snapped and then hung up, deciding that it might be a good idea to go visit Morelli and get the idea of Ranger and handcuffs out of my head.

I was sitting on Morelli's couch with Bob. Morelli wasn't home yet, so I helped myself to some beer and his television. Bob had his head in my lap, clearly trying to get his mouth close enough to the bag of chips I had open to eat the whole thing in one bite. It was late, and I was starting to get tired, but my phone rang.

"Stephanie," it was Hal's voice coming from the other side, "we have some movement on the car you placed."

"Where is it?" I asked.

"It's at an address on Centre Street in South Trenton. Do you need back up?"

"No, I'll be fine," I answered as I got up and got my shoes on. "Text me the address."

"10-4," Hal answered, and then disconnected. I briefly pondered changing my mind and asking him to send back up, but I figured I would just pick up Lula instead.

I called her as I was getting into the car. "Wanna pick up Genovese?"

"Right now?" Lula asked.

"Are you busy?"

"Depends on what you mean by busy," Lula answered. "I've got a sweet hunk of man trussed up in my bed like a Thanksgiving turkey, but you know I'm all about bros before 'hoes."

Since Lula was a former 'ho, I wasn't exactly sure how to take this.

"No need," I told her. "I'll be fine on my own. Worst case scenario, he just runs away and escapes like he always does."

"You let me know if you need me to bring my glock," Lula ordered. I thanked her and hung up. The last thing I wanted around was Lula's glock.

When I pulled up to the address that Hal had sent me, I immediately spotted the black Mercedes. It stuck out in this neighborhood. This was a neighborhood filled with poor working people. Mostly Hispanic. I was surprised that Genovese had wound up here.

Though it was explained when a cute girl in her early twenties walked out of one of the houses and out towards the Mercedes. Looked like whoever stole it was still in the car. I got out of the Rav-4 and strode over to it.

The girl stopped talking when she saw me and stood up straight.

"Who are you?" She demanded. The guy in the driver side looked my way and got out of the car. It was Genovese.

"Hey, Ant," I said cheerfully.

"This your car?" he asked me as he closed the door and leaned against the car. He was tall and slim, with an olive complexion and dark wavy hair that brushed his shoulders.

"One of them," I answered as I reached into the back of my jeans and pulled out my cuffs.

"Nice car," he complimented me.

"There are plenty more where it came from, so I guess it's OK that you stole it," I told him. "I promise not to say anything about it when we go to the courthouse to set up a new court date."

"You must think I'm an idiot," he told me.

"No, I think you're very smart," I promised him. "I didn't expect you to take my bait so quickly, though."

"This is a beautiful car," he told me. "I might not even get it chopped up, now that I know it's yours." I took this chance to jump at him. I quickly got one wrist cuffed and was struggling to get the other one when I felt someone pulling at my hair.

"YOU LET HIM GO, PUTA!" The girl was screaming at me. I reflexively turned and shoved her into the car.

"Keep your hands off her!" Genovese exclaimed. He swung at me with the cuffed wrist. His hand missed my face, but the cuff got me in the eye. I could feel blood flowing immediately, but I knew the damage wasn't bad. I charged at Genovese and tackled him, but his girlfriend was still operational and she pulled me off him again. She punched me in the lip. At least she was small. Again, I could feel blood, but no significant damage.

I pushed her off of me one more time and went back to Genovese. It seemed that I hurt him when I tackled him and I didn't want to wait for him to get himself back together. I had both of his wrists cuffed behind his back when I heard the unmistakable click of a gun being cocked. I froze.

"Get off him, you bitch," the girl growled at me. I immediately put my hands up and stood.

"You've already assaulted me," I said without turning around to look at her. "You don't want to add 'with a deadly weapon' to that charge. Trust me."

"Only matters if I get caught," she murmured.

"Don't shoot her, Gloria," Ant said as he managed to get himself off the sidewalk without the use of his hands. I heard Gloria sigh, and then felt a blow to the back of my head. Things went dark after that.

I came to lying on the sidewalk in front of the house. The Mercedes was gone, and so was my Rav-4.

"Fuck," I muttered as I pushed myself up on my hands and knees and reached to my pocket for my cell phone. It was still there, thankfully. I dialed Ranger.

"Babe," he answered.

"The plan worked, but I hit a snag," I told him.

"Where are you?" He asked.

"South Trenton, on Centre Street.

"I'm on my way with Cam," he told me. "Hal actually left a few minutes ago to check on you. The Mercedes and your Rav-4 both started moving together in the same direction and I was worried you were a part of some high speed chase."

"Nope. They took the Mercedes and my car."

"They?" Ranger asked.

"Genovese and his girlfriend," I answered.

"They ganged up on you?"

"How else do you think they got away?" I replied. That actually got a small chuckle out of Ranger, which was as a full on laugh as far as I'm concerned.

"Are you hurt?" He got serious again.

"The girlfriend hit me in the back of the head with a gun, I think," I told him, "and my eye is kind of swollen shut. Genovese tried to punch me, but he missed and the cuff clipped my eye."

Silence on the other end.

"Also his girlfriend punched me in the mouth. It looks worse than it is." I could hear some shuffling, and then Cam's voice.

"Hey Stephanie," she greeted. "Ranger turned the phone over to me."

"Does it look like he's trying to keep his cool?" I inquired.

"Hard to say," Camryn replied. "We'll be with you in about 5 minutes. Would you like me to stay on the phone with you?"

It was possible that I might actually get used to this. It was weird for a Rangeman employee to actually have phone manners. I was considering taking her up on her offer when my phone beeped. I checked out the screen and saw that Morelli was calling.

"Thanks, but I've got another call. I'll see you two in a few minutes." I picked up Morelli.

"I thought you were going to be home when I got back?" Morelli asked. "It was real disappointed to just come back to Bob and a shredded potato chip bag."

"I'm sorry," I told him, "I got news on a skip and left in a hurry."

"Are you coming back soon?"

"I might have to go to the hospital first," I answered.

Once again there was silence on the other end. I imagined Morelli staring at his shoes and doing some deep breathing. He was also probably searching for Rolaids.

"It's not that bad," I promised him, "I just got in a little fight. Might need a few stitches on my eye."

"Jesus Christ, Steph," he murmured. "Where are you?"

"I'm on Centre Street right now. Ranger is coming to get me. He should be here in a few minutes."

"Let me know what hospital you go to. I'll meet you there."

As we disconnected, a black Porsche Cayenne pulled up and parked where the Mercedes had been. Ranger got out of the car and walked over to me, putting his hand on the side of my face that wasn't covered in blood as he inspected the damage.

"It looks worse than it is," I said again. "Though I _am_ starting to get a bit of a headache."

"You probably have a concussion," Ranger told me. "Guns are heavy. Why was she pointing a gun at you?"

"I guess she really didn't want Ant to go back to jail," I murmured with a shrug. "Sorry about the car."

"We'll get it back," Ranger assured me, "I'm worried about you. This is a lot of blood, Babe."

"Do you think I'll need stitches?"

"Normally I would say probably not, but it's your face – and I like your face the way it is. Better have a plastic surgeon take a look. What ER do you want to go to?"

"I guess St. Francis," I answered, wishing that the night hadn't taken this turn. Ranger nodded.

"Cam, call Hector and have him send a fleet car to St. Francis," Ranger ordered as the two of us walked back towards the car. Cam was sitting in the front seat and didn't look like she intended to move. If I could narrow my eyes I might have done so. I'd never sat in the back seat of a car when Ranger was driving.

For expediency's sake, I got in the back, listening while Cam talked to Hector in perfect Spanish. I decided to call Morelli. Might as well take him up on his offer.

Cam

Ranger and I rode in silence away from the hospital once he was sure that Stephanie was taken care of. He left her with a really good-looking cop. Hector had dropped of the fleet car for her use and then went back with Tank. I wished that I could have gone with them, but Ranger wanted me to stay with him.

I didn't really get it, but I wasn't in a position to say no, so I stayed.

"Why am I with you right now?" I inquired once we had been driving for a minute or so. "It doesn't seem like you needed me." Ranger cut his eyes to me, but didn't say anything. I focused my attention back on the road. Even when other people were driving, I had a tendency to be constantly alert. I hated being in cars. Ranger's energy wasn't helping. I could tell he was riled up.

"I wasn't sure what I would be heading into," he answered. "I wanted back up."

"You could have brought anyone for back up," I told him.

"Well, you're my assistant," Ranger responded, and that was that. He was angry.

I had only known him for a few days, but as his assistant I thought it would be a good idea to try and become attuned to his moods. This was one I had not yet witnessed, and I filed it away for further use. He was distressed, he was anxious.

Outwardly, you couldn't tell. But I pride myself on being able to read a person. His body language was completely different than his usual calm confidence. The confidence was still there, and the calm as well – outwardly, at least, but I could sense something bubbling right beneath the surface that was starting to stress me out as well.

This is what made me a good assistant. My empathy.

"She's fine," I murmured. Though I didn't know much, I _did_ know that Stephanie Plum was somebody who meant a lot to Ranger. In my first briefing, he had told me that I was to give her pretty much whatever she needed when she asked for it.

"I want you to help her track down Genovese," he told me. This caught me off guard.

"She won't stop until he's back behind bars, and it's only going to get more dangerous for her. Just help her. You saw what he did to her. She's always punching above her weight."

"And you think he's within my weight?" I inquired.

"I _know_ he is well below your weight," Ranger answered. "I also wouldn't mind if you gave him a bit back for the shiner she's going to have on her face. I like her face."

"Noted," I answered. "Still, bounty hunting wasn't in the job description you gave me." I didn't want to say this out loud, but … well … I didn't hunt people. Not anymore.

"I think 'various tasks as required' was on there," Ranger countered. I did my best to contain a sigh as I glared out the window. I needed this job. I couldn't fuck it up in the first week.

"Fine," I answered. "I'll take care of it."

Rangeman's control room was incredibly sophisticated for the size of the operation Ranger was running. It reminded me of New York City in that, if you wanted something, you could have it.

After a few minutes of searching, I had all of Genovese's known addresses, and a few for his closer associates as well. I doubted he would be at the girlfriend's house since that was where all the shit hit the fan, so I looked into other options. The car had been stolen near his home in West Trenton. It was possible that he would go back there. He obviously felt like he had nothing to fear.

"Wrong …" I murmured as I printed out the page and headed towards the door. Unlike the rest of the Rangeman employees, I preferred to _not_ wear all black if I could avoid. A six-foot tall black girl walking around in all black attracts attention. I preferred greens and blues and browns.

I looked at myself in the mirror before walking out of my Rangeman apartment. Black boots, blue jeans, white tee, muted green jacket, black gloves Hello, unthreatening millennial. I pulled my hair back. Curls attracted attention as well.

As soon as I got back with Ranger, I had decided that going after this guy myself was going to be a lot more efficient than going with Stephanie to do it. She seemed like an idiot. Nice, but on the clueless side. What on earth had she been thinking going after this guy alone?

"Maybe you're not that much smarter than her, since you're going after him alone," I murmured to myself, grabbing my gun before closing the door behind me.

I could hear the noises of what Ant probably thought was satisfying sex on the other side of the apartment door in West Trenton. I knew it was Ant because this was the address they had picked up the Mercedes from. I had asked Tank why Hal hadn't just picked up Genovese while he was at it. He said Ranger likes to let Stephanie make captures on her own. It makes her feel like he doesn't completely control her life.

Shaking my head, I knocked on the door. I didn't have that kind of time. I wasn't there to be a second-rate bounty hunter's assistant.

"What?" I heard someone yell from the inside. I opted not to answer. Seconds later, the door swung open, revealing a tall, scrawny man in nothing but his boxers.

"Oh, hello," he said, pouring on the smarm as he leaned against the doorframe. "What can I do for you?"

I reached for his hand and quickly snapped a cuff on. Forcing myself into the apartment, I slammed him against the wall and got the other hand neatly cuffed as well. I had surprise on my side.

"What the fuck is this?!" He demanded. "Who the fuck are you?"

Once again I opted not to answer. The less I said the better, as far as I was concerned. In, out, on with life.

At least it would have been, if I hadn't heard the gun being cocked behind my ear.

In that moment, it was as if everything went completely silent. I could feel Genovese's wrists under my hands as I pressed him against the wall, but that didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was the cool metal of the gun barrel at the back of my head and the whooshing sound in my ears.

An eerie sense of calm came over me and I wished it away. I _pushed_ away. I needed the anger and fear to come back. I didn't want what the calm brought with it.

A breath in.

A breath out.

"Get out, bitch," a female voice said behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see someone much smaller than me. It was amazing that she had even gotten the gun to the back of my head. I turned around.

"Next time you point a gun at me," I told her, "you better pull that trigger much faster." I moved to her left and redirected the gun with my left hand. She squeezed off a round that ended up in Genovese's leg. His scream gave me the distraction I needed. Her guard was down, I punched her in the nose with my right hand, and then reached down to twist the gun out of her hands. I then used it to smack her across the face.

She went down hard. I stood over her prostrate form, knowing that I did not have long before someone came to investigate the sound of the gun.

I crouched down. She was slowly coming to.

"You shouldn't call other girls bitches," I told her, pressing the hot end of the barrel into her forehead. She cried out as she regained full consciousness. "And you shouldn't point guns at people you don't intend to shoot.

I got up and kicked her in the face to make sure she stayed out, taking a sick pleasure in the way her neck snapped backwards, before turning back to Ant, who was slumped on the floor against the wall, looking like he was about ready to shit his pants. I dropped the gun and moved towards him, grabbing by his hair to drag him down the hall.

I couldn't believe that the hall was empty. Gun shots must not be a strange occurrence in this neighborhood.


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks so much for the positive feedback, everyone! I hope the story lives up to your expectations! Please let me know about you feel in regards to switching back and forth between Steph's POV and Cam's. I could do the whole thing from the third person if you think that might be better.

Chapter Two

Stephanie

Morelli and I were sitting on my couch in front of my tiny TV. I had six teeny tiny stitches on my eyebrow, which was sitting under a bag of ice. Morelli had supplied some beer, and we decided we were going to have an early night. He was off, or as off as he could ever be, and I was happy that I probably wasn't going to have a scar on my face.

Somehow in the middle of the 8th inning, Morelli's hand found its way to my crotch. I gave him a look as if to remind him that I had just had stitches put in. It didn't seem like Joe particularly cared, as my face wasn't the important part of what he had in mind.

That's when my phone starting ringing.

"Ignore it," Morelli pleaded. He had just unbuttoned the top snap of my jeans. I looked at the caller ID. It wasn't a number I recognized so I didn't pick up the phone. Eventually it stopped. But only for a second. The same number called again. Morelli looked like he was about ready to put my phone in the blender and hit puree.

The only problem with that plan was I didn't have a blender. It was on my shopping list, though.

"Just let me pick it up," I said. "It looks like they won't stop calling until I do." I grabbed my phone and hit the green button.

"Hello?" I tried to put as much exasperation and annoyance into my voice as I could.

"Stephanie," a familiar voice came from the other end. Cam.

"How did you get my number?" I asked, and then immediately regretted it. That was a stupid question.

"I'm going to assume that you understand how silly that question was and we are going to move on," Cam said to me. I almost thanked her but stopped myself just in time.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Your skip is in the St. Francis ER," she answered. "Someone shot him." I took my phone away from my ear for a second and looked at it in disbelief. Joe gave me a questioning look, which I ignored.

"Which skip?" I finally asked.

"Genovese," she answered.

"Did you shoot him?" I continued. There was a beat of silence on the other end of the phone before Cam answered.

"No."

"That doesn't sound very convincing."

"Strictly speaking, I didn't shoot him," Cam answered. This was something I could work with. I was used to operating in a gray area, especially when it came to my skips being shot. Technically it was never really my fault.

"Who did?" I asked as I buttoned my top button. Joe sighed and flopped down on the couch as I went looking for my shoes.

"His girlfriend," she responded.

"Is there proof of this?"

"Well, the gun is in her possession," Cam answered. "Look, are you going to come to the hospital and get this guy or not?"

"I'm walking out of my apartment now," I answered. "Will you make sure he doesn't leave?"

"Sure thing," Cam answered and then disconnected.

"Who was that?" Joe asked.

"Ranger's assistant."

"Ranger hired an assistant?" Morelli asked, cocking an eyebrow. "Like someone to manage his calendar and greet his clients?"

"Yes."

"What an asshole," Morelli muttered. "What did she want?"

"Ant Genovese just turned up at St. Francis," I answered. "He's been shot. I'm going to go cuff him to a bed."

"Lucky guy."

Cam

After disconnecting with Stephanie, I looked in my backseat at Genovese. His out of control hysterics had calmed to a tolerable whimper before he passed out. I was really glad that Stephanie was coming to the hospital because I did _not_ feel like driving around with this whining baby in my backseat anymore.

"Look, I found a hospital," I yelled to him as I put the car in gear and inched towards the Emergency Room. I had wanted to make a joke about how it looked like he was going to get a new court date tonight after all, but I wanted to avoid connecting myself to Stephanie if I could. It was bad enough that I had to make the phone call in front of him. Hopefully he had been too out of it to hear. "You're in luck."

"You're a crazy fucking bitch," Genovese stammered groggily as he came back to consciousness.

"You saw what happened to your girlfriend when she called me a bitch, didn't you?" I asked mildly as I stopped, put the car in park, and got out. When I opened the back driver side door to drag him out, he was feeling comfy enough to threaten me.

"I swear, I am going to kill you," he seethed as I grabbed him by his hair and pulled him out of the car. He was my height, but I definitely had about ten pounds on him. I could easily move him around. "I swear, if Gloria is hurt-"

"Oh, she's definitely hurt," I promised him, shoving him to the ground. He groaned as he fell onto his hurt leg. Luckily traffic around the door was slow, and I was pretty sure the SUV would block me from view of cameras and prying eyes. I hadn't actually pulled into the driveway that led into the sliding doors. Instead I had parked on the street. "Did you see how hard I kicked her? Her head practically snapped off her neck!" I looked down at my Doc Martens. They were black, so they wouldn't show any blood, but there had to be some there. I had a very satisfying flashback of the feel of her nose meeting my boot. The crunch of bone was delicious. "You'll be OK if I leave you here, right?"

He didn't answer. Instead he started crawling away from me, to the opposite side of the street. I sighed and pulled my hood up over my face. These idiots never took the smart choice. I mean I had _delivered_ him to the hospital.

"I guess you need door to door service," I murmured as I went after him, grabbed him by the back of his shirt, and started dragging him towards the door. "You're an idiot. You've been shot. People that have been shot need to go to see the doctor."

"I'm not going back to jail," he grunted, trying to fight me and failing.

"I don't think that's up to me or you," I informed him. "Personally I just don't have the means to treat a gunshot wound. Maybe you should teach Gloria how to use a gun and next time she won't shoot you." I dropped him right in front of the door, satisfied that someone would be out to get him soon when I saw a nurse in pink scrubs look out at us.

I quickly made my way back to the car, put it in drive, and calmly pulled away from the curb, watching the nurse come out to Genovese with a stretcher from my rear view mirror.

Stephanie

When I got to the hospital, Cam was nowhere to be seen. Annoying, because I wanted to ask her about what happened. She said that she would make sure that he didn't leave. As it was, I wasn't in the mood to call her to get her to come back. There would be other chances. Besides, I would rather have Ranger deal with her than do it myself.

"I'm looking for Ant Genovese," I said to the nurse who was sitting at reception. "I was told that he was here."

"He just got in about ten minutes ago," the nurse said, "gunshot wound. Someone just dropped him off at the door and left." My eyes widened in shock.

"Is he all right?" I asked.

"He should be," the nurse answered. "The shot was in his leg. Are you family?"

"No," I answered as I flashed the badge I had printed on the Internet in the nurse's face. "I represent his bail bondsman. Mr. Genovese missed his court date. I'm here to secure him and bring him back to the courthouse."

"I doubt that he will be getting out of the hospital tonight, but you're welcome to wait here until he gets out of surgery so that you can get the proper proof that he's here." She gestured towards one of the chairs. I sighed and trudged over to it.

"God damn it, Cam," I murmured as I pulled out my phone and dialed Ranger.

"Yo," he answered.

"So I'm back in the hospital," I told him.

"I noticed," he told me, "did you forget something?"

"Someone left Ant Genovese at the door of the Emergency Room at St. Francis," I explained, trying my best to keep my tone even and civil. "But not before they got him shot." Silence. "Ranger what did you do?"

"I didn't do anything," Ranger assured me.

"OK, what did you have _Cam_ do?" I asked, my fuse getting shorter and shorter by the minute.

"I did not give her any order to apprehend him," Ranger said again.

"Cut the fucking bullshit, Ranger!" I exclaimed. Several people turned to look at me, so I quickly got up to bring my conversation outside. "What did you say to her?"

"I told her that I wanted her to help you track him down," Ranger answered. "That was it. Why? Do you think Cam shot him?"

"I have no fucking idea what happened," I told him. "I got a call from her telling me that Genovese was at St. Francis and that was it. Now he is in surgery and I have to wait here to get to him."

"I'll send her to wait with you," Ranger suggested.

"I don't _want_ you to send your assistant to wait with me," I told him. "Ranger, you know I don't want you bringing in my skips for me. I can do my own damn job. Now he's been shot. You _know_ how much paperwork that involves."

"Well, at least you have Morelli for an alibi, so no one can blame you for it," Ranger told me. I could hear a bit of venom sneaking into his voice as well, which was strange for Ranger. His tone was always calm.

"I don't like where this conversation is going," I told him. I already knew that Morelli and Ranger would never get along. They would work around each other for my sake, but that was it. "Next time you want to have my job done for me, at least give me a little heads up." I hung up on him and stormed back inside.

I dialed both Connie and Lula to let them know that Genovese had been shot and that I was with him at St. Francis. Next was Morelli. I told him that it was unlikely that I would be home any time soon. He didn't sound very happy but there wasn't really much for that. I wasn't in the mood for appeasing the men in my life at the moment.

Cam

I was getting ready for a late night work out. There was no way I was going to be able to get to sleep in my current state. The urge to find something and kill it was making my fingers tingle. Luckily for me and everyone around me, I knew this wasn't a productive emotion for anything but exercise. My plan was three miles on the treadmill in twenty minutes or less.

I was pulling on my sneakers when I heard the locks on my door tumble and heard it swing open. Immediately my senses heightened. The tingling in my fingers turned into a burning as I reached for my gun. My mind slowed down as I started running through all the possible scenarios in my head. I was at least well dressed for a fight, and whoever was in my apartment probably wasn't expecting me to be practically high on the lust for blood.

"Camryn, it's me," I heard Ranger's voice say from the hallway. This would have calmed any normal person, but my brain doesn't work that way. It was kind of like an adrenaline hangover. Now that I knew I wouldn't have to fight, my body didn't know what to do with this energy. I felt like I was going to throw up.

Instead, I took a deep breath and put my gun down. My hand shook visibly so I shoved it into the pocket of my sweatshirt and went to the living room to meet Ranger. He did not look happy.

"Do you want to tell me about what happened tonight?" He asked mildly.

"Nope," I responded.

"Let me rephrase that," Ranger started over. "What the fuck happened tonight?"

"Looks to me like you already know," I told him as I tried to get by him. He put his arm out and stopped me and I quickly backed away.

"I'm going to give you a pass because you're new here," Ranger said to me. "In the future, when I ask you a question, you answer it."

"Am I on the clock right now?"

He lowered his arm and glared at me, his dark eyes hard and unforgiving. I found myself thanking the universe for my height. At least he couldn't look down too far at me. "While you're living in an apartment that I pay for, you're always on the clock. Let's try again. What happened tonight?"

"I delivered Steph's skip to her," I answered. "It didn't happen exactly how I wanted it to, but I think he's now in her possession."

"He was in surgery about an hour ago," Ranger told me.

"Makes sense," I said with a shrug. "His girlfriend shot him."

"Did she?"

"If I had shot him, I'd take credit for it."

"This is not what I asked for," Ranger informed me.

"I know," I answered, "but it seemed more efficient than bumbling around with her for hours just to make her feel like she's a competent adult."

"It is not your job to decide what is more efficient," he said as he advanced on me. "It is your job to do what I ask of you." I closed my eyes so I couldn't see him.

"Please don't come near me," I begged, deciding to throw my bravado out the window and humble myself. Attacking my boss was not on the list of things that I thought might make a good impression during my first week, but sometimes I couldn't control myself. I felt it was especially important that I at least try in this case because I doubted the outcome of a fight with Ranger would be pleasant. "Please stay on your side of the room and I'll stay on mine."

My hands were shaking again.

"Do you want me to go back to the hospital and wait with Stephanie? I'll go." My eyes were still screwed shut as I lowered my head so I would have been staring at the floor. I clenched my hands. Once, a doctor I had seen told me that a quick, temporary fix for anxiety was tensing all of my muscles for as long as I could and then letting them go. It was supposed to give me enough time to take another breath and calm myself. Unfortunately it wasn't working.

"She doesn't want you there," Ranger told me. I did my best not to look relieved. "Since it appears that you need _very_ specific instructions, I'll spell this out for you. Tomorrow you will call Stephanie and apologize for meddling."

"But the meddling was _your_ idea."

"After you apologize," Ranger ignored me, "you will ask her if there is anything she needs from you for the rest of the day."

"Is this supposed to be like a punishment?" When I opened my eyes, Ranger was standing very close to me. His presence was ominous and threatening. Reflexively I put my hands on his chest and gave him a shove. Surprised, he took a step back so he wouldn't lose his balance. There was dead silence as he just looked at me. After about twenty seconds, he finally asked, "Are you insane?"

I couldn't answer. My mind was in defense mode, looking around for things I could use as weapons. It took all of my effort to bring myself back into the moment. There was no danger. At least not physically. Breathe in, breathe out. Luckily, Ranger's phone rang, giving me a few extra seconds to compose myself.

"Babe," he said. It was Stephanie. He listened momentarily, said OK, and then disconnected.

"Genovese got out of surgery about fifteen minutes ago. Steph got what she needed and she's on her way here because she is pissed off.

"Great, I was just heading to the gym." I tried to walk past him again and he snagged me by the hood of my sweatshirt.

"You're definitely insane if you think I'm facing her alone."

Stephanie

Ranger and Camryn were already waiting for me in his apartment when I arrived on the seventh floor. Camryn was sitting on a stool in the kitchen, her hands folded in front of her as she stared down. Looked to me like she was counting the spots in the marble countertop. I couldn't help but smirk. She looked scared.

Ranger looked much calmer. He was dressed in a black t-shirt and black jeans, and had a glass of red wine in front of him.

"Babe," he greeted me.

"Get me one of those," I sighed.

"You can have this one," Ranger answered as he pushed it towards me. I grabbed the glass and downed about half of it, placing it down gently as I looked at Cam.

"So. What did you do tonight?" I asked her. With the wine in my system I was feeling a lot calmer. I decided on my way over that I wasn't going to blame Cam. She was just doing what I was sure Ranger asked of her – or at least her interpretation of what that was. The girl looked up at me, her eyes unfocused, her breathing ragged. Looked like she had seen better days. I wondered what Ranger did to her.

"I …" she began, her eyes closing as she searched for composure. "I went to Genovese's apartment. I figured I could grab him and drive him to your apartment and we could go together to get him booked."

"So far this doesn't sound terrible," I told her. Then, I cut my eyes to Ranger. "Still completely unnecessary, but not terrible. Go on."

"It was going smoothly. I had him up against a wall and cuffed when I heard a gun being cocked behind my head."

"I can relate to that," I assured Cam. "That happened to me tonight as well." I shuddered involuntarily as my mind went back to that moment. No matter how many times someone points a gun at you, it doesn't get any easier. I dealt with it by trying to forget it ever happened.

"After that it was instinct. I redirected her aim and she squeezed off a shot that ended up in Genovese's leg. I got the gun from her, got Genovese, and dragged him to my car."

"I think that you're leaving something out," I said to her, "I spoke to Genovese briefly after his surgery with the cops. He seems to think you killed his girlfriend."

"I don't think she's dead," Cam told me. "Though I can't be sure. I didn't check on her before leaving. I was trying to get out before someone came around asking about the gunshot."

"Do you have any reason to believe that she might be dead?" Ranger pried. He also knew that he wasn't getting the whole story out of her and I could tell that was he frustrated.

"I kicked her pretty hard in the face before I left," Cam said with a shrug. "It was self-defense." I snorted and rolled my eyes. Something told me that this girl in front of me had nothing to fear from Genovese's tiny girlfriend, even if she _was_ pointing a gun at her. "But I don't think I killed her. It didn't _feel_ like I killed her."

I refrained from asking if she knew what it felt like to kill someone. If she was working at Rangeman, I was sure that she did. This was another thing I dealt with by ignoring it.

"This is bad news, Cam," Ranger told her. "Gloria De Silva is Felix De Silva's daughter. He's up high in the Latin Kings around here. That is not a man that you want to piss off."

"I doubt she knows who I am," Cam responded.

"No, you're probably right," Ranger agreed. I could tell that he was working hard to keep himself under control in front of me. God knew how he would be acting if I wasn't here. I was surprised to find that I was glad to be there to protect Cam from his wrath. The knowledge that I had that kind of control over Ranger made me feel warm. "But she knows who _Stephanie_ is."

"Well, hopefully she's dead, then," Cam responded, deadpan. "Dead women tell no tales."

"This is serious, Camryn," Ranger told her.

"I'm being serious," Cam assured him.

"You realize that your actions have put Stephanie in danger, right?" Ranger inquired. Cam cut her eyes to me and I shrugged.

"I'm used to gangs being after me," I assured her. I couldn't explain why I felt the need to reassure her that her life wasn't about to become a living hell, even though I knew it probably was. There was something about he way she was sitting with her hands clasped so tight that her knuckles were turning white that pulled on my sympathy. She was scared.

I took a second to revel in the idea that she was scared of _me._

"That's not the point," Ranger cut in. "The point is, just because this isn't Sudan, doesn't mean that real danger doesn't live here."

Sudan? I looked at the girl in front of me. There was no way she could have served overseas. She was practically a child. The mention of Sudan seemed to do something to her, though, and her gaze retreated inward, if that's even possible. She looked like Ranger had just punched her in the chest.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. Her voice was thick like she was about to start crying and I immediately felt the urge to run. Something shifted in Ranger, too. His next words were much less harsh.

"I know," Ranger responded. "Until we're sure there's no threat, you're going to be with Stephanie." He turned to me. "Call Cam when you wake up tomorrow. She'll be there when you're ready to leave. You can take her with you skip hunting tomorrow." Camryn opened her mouth to protest and then shut it quickly. I was not so nervous about speaking up in front of Ranger.

"I don't need a babysitter."

"At least let Cam follow you around until that is confirmed," Ranger suggested. When he phrased it that way, it didn't seem like such an intrusion. His tone suggested that he wasn't going to take no for an answer anyway. He looked back at Cam. "You understand your orders?"

"Yes," Cam answered softly. "May I leave now?"

"Go ahead," Ranger replied. He seemed relieved that he was going to get her off of his hands before she broke down into tears. Cam stood up so quickly that the stool she was sitting on scraped loudly against the floor and almost fell over. I could tell she wished that the elevator wasn't the only way out. She looked like she needed a door to slam. I could relate to that.

Once she was gone, I looked back at Ranger.

"Sudan?" I asked.

"I shouldn't have said that in front of you," Ranger told me as he grabbed another wine glass and poured himself a glass from the bottle that was sitting on the island.

"How the hell do you know this girl?" I pushed. It was bad enough to have to deal with Ranger's mysteries. A mysterious woman from his past was just too much to cope with.

"It's not my story to tell," Ranger responded, and that was that. He took a sip of wine and his gaze settled on me. "Are you all right?"

"Just tired," I answered, frustrated at how he was continually shutting me out. He wondered why I continually chose Morelli over him. Joe might have his shortcomings, but at least he wasn't a book that I _had_ to judge by the cover. He let me into the private parts of him. I would never have that with Ranger. I was dismayed to realize how much that hurt me.

"I've been in the hospital for the past two hours trying to make sure Genovese didn't try to escape after his surgery. Not too much chance, though. He's doped up on enough pain killers to put an elephant to sleep."

"I'm sorry your night ended up like this. I guess in a way it's my fault."

"It's your fault in _all_ ways," I corrected him. It was meant to chastise him, but Ranger just smiled his wolf smile.

"The need to protect you is one of my dominant urges," he told me.

"Where have I heard _that_ before?" I muttered as I finished the last of my wine. "Do you have any more of this?"

"Are you trying to get me drunk?" Ranger asked as he took a step towards me, pouring more wine into my glass.

"I'm the one on my second glass," I reminded him.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "I'm pretty sure this is your first." After he finished pouring, he put the bottle down. The newly free hand settled on my waist. "Now … about you asking for it …" I had to admit, the wine and the closeness of Ranger's body had me all revved up and ready to go. I was considering how long it would take me to get my clothes off when my phone buzzed.

"Shit …" I muttered. "It's Morelli. He's been waiting for me." The look in Ranger's eyes turned from predatory to unreadable in zero seconds flat as he backed away and took up his wine glass.

"Is his wine better than mine?" Ranger inquired. I chuckled and shook my head. Morelli was more of a beer guy. Sometimes I thought that was why we got along. He was just as laid back as I was about pretty much everything … besides my job that is. Morelli _hated_ my job. "Drive carefully, and let me know when you're ready for an upgrade."


	3. Chapter 3

Stephanie

I woke up the next morning feeling almost normal. Morelli was in the bed next to me, his arm draped across my body, warmth radiating from his core as if he were a small furnace. It was odd that he had not gotten up before me. I guess he had a long night, as well.

Remembering Ranger's instructions to call Cam as soon as I woke up, I peeled myself out of the bed and grabbed my phone. It would be easier for both Camryn and me if I just followed directions. I was sure that if I didn't check in, she would just have to come and find me anyway.

"I'm surprised that you called," Cam told me. "You don't strike me as someone who has to listen to Ranger."

"I don't," I agreed, "but I am a human, and also a woman. I'm not going to give you a hard time for something I know wasn't your fault – even if your execution was … amateur."

"Amateur?" Camryn scoffed, sounding like she was choking on something. "What are you talking about? It was perfect."

"Perfect would have been not having to go the ER at 10:00 PM on the only night my boyfriend wasn't working," I corrected.

"You mean Ranger's not your boyfriend?" She asked. I froze, unsure if she was being facetious.

"No," I responded once I got over the shock. "Ranger is not my boyfriend."

"Interesting …" Cam murmured. "So, when do you want me to show up at your place?" I padded into the kitchen and poured some dog crunchies into Bob's bowl. The sound brought him clambering into the kitchen.

"I guess I'll be ready to move in about thirty minutes," I answered. "I want to get to the courthouse and get my body receipt as quickly as I can." I had bills to pay, and Genovese had been a pretty good-sized bond. "Why is Ranger not being my boyfriend interesting to you?"

"I think it would be interesting to anyone with eyes," Cam told me. "I'll be there in thirty minutes." She disconnected. Since I was alone, I didn't bother holding back my sigh. It seemed that everyone had an insight into Ranger's feelings for me that I didn't.

Sounds coming from the bedroom told me that Morelli was awake and could smell the coffee.

"Morning, Cupcake," he said to me as he kissed me on the top of the head on his way to the fridge. "Who was that on the phone?"

"Ranger's assistant," I answered. "Her name is Cam. She's going to be following me around today."

"Why?" Morelli asked. I wasn't sure if it was wise to give him the truth, but I didn't want to lie to him either. Luckily, I was used to being in this kind of position.

"I think it might be best if you don't have all the details in this case."

"Does it have anything to do with Ant Genovese showing up in the hospital last night?" Morelli asked, cocking his eyebrow at me as he drank some orange juice straight from the carton. I would have yelled at him, but he was the one who bought the orange juice. Stocking the fridge was a little beyond my domestic capabilities.

"You could say that it does," I answered.

"She's not the one who shot him, is she?" Morelli asked.

"She says she didn't."

"Jesus Christ," Joe murmured. "Who did then?"

"She says it was his girlfriend, but who knows?"

"I don't want you to tell me anymore," Morelli said as he put his hands over his ears.

"I was hoping you would arrive at that conclusion without me," I told him as I kissed him on the cheek. "I'm getting in the shower. She's going to be here in thirty minutes if you want to meet her."

"No way I'm missing that," Morelli told me, "and no way I'm missing you in the shower, either."

OOOO

Twenty minutes later, I was showered, curled, dressed, and I had put on a few swipes of mascara for good measure, assuming that Cam would show up with her perfect winged eyeliner again.

I wasn't disappointed when I opened the door for her. As usual, I was dressed in running shoes, jeans, and a stretchy t-shirt. Cam looked more like she was ready for a New York City catwalk than a day of chasing scumbags through the dirt. She was wearing a slouchy black V-neck that hung off one shoulder, revealing a black sports bra strap, tucked into black high-waist jeans. At least the boots didn't have a heel today, so she was only towering over me a little bit. Her curls hung over her bare shoulder, still a little wet. I found myself wishing my hair could look so bouncy when it was damp. It would save me a lot of time with the blow dryer. Her leather biker jacket was hanging over her arm.

"You ready?" she asked.

"I'm ready," I told her as I gave her the classic Jersey once over, letting my eyes rake over her in a way that said I was not impressed by her wardrobe, "but it doesn't look like you are. What exactly do you think we're doing today?"

"What do you mean?" Cam asked as she looked down at herself. "These are my comfiest clothes. At least they're my comfiest black clothes. Between the hours of eight and seven I have to be in all black. It's so fucking annoying. Do you know how much _more_ people stare at me when I'm wearing all black? It seems counter-productive but Ranger can't be reasoned with."

"Sneakers?" I suggested, ignoring her diatribe.

"Sneakers are for working out."

"Or for running," I reminded her, "which is a very common activity when you're a bounty hunter, incidentally."

"I can run just fine in these," Camryn assured me as she looked down at her Doc Martens. "Also, last night I found out that they're also great for kicking little brats in the face." She looked over my shoulder and spotted Morelli.

"Who were you planning on kicking in the face?" he asked her.

"Is _this_ your boyfriend?" Cam asked, her tone a little judgmental for my liking.

"You could say that," Morelli answered as he took up a place next to me and reached for Cam's hand. It took all my strength to not roll my eyes. I wasn't sure how I felt about him telling people that he was my boyfriend. "Joe Morelli."

"You're the cop from last night." Realization dawned on Cam's face. "Interesting."

"Will you stop saying that?" I spat as I grabbed my jacket and herded her out the door.

"Your boyfriend is pretty hot," Camryn told me once we were in the hallway and I had shut the door. "Not as hot as Ranger, but I wouldn't kick him out of bed." I rolled my eyes so hard I thought I might have fallen down. I wasn't sure if I liked the version of Cam that was comfortable acting like a normal person in front of me. She seemed so different than the last time I saw her. Last night, it had seemed like she was focusing every ounce of her energy on disappearing. Now her presence was taking up too much space.

As we walked through the parking lot, I realized that Cam and I were driving the exact same Rangeman fleet SUV.

"We'll take my car," Cam said as she jingled the keys. "Ranger pays for the gas."

"I like it," I told her as she unlocked the doors with the keyless entry and I climbed into the passenger seat. "Our first stop is the courthouse." I buckled myself in. "Scratch that. Our first stop is Tasty Pastry. Then the courthouse."

OOOOO

Doughnuts in hand, I walked back out to the car where Camryn was waiting. She had opted not to come inside. Like Ranger, it seemed that she didn't eat fried dough.

"You sure you don't want one?" I asked, looking at my half dozen doughnuts. "I got an extra one just in case."

"One extra?" Camryn asked, this time it was her turn to judge me. "So the other five are for you?"

"I don't think I like your tone," I said to her as she turned the ignition over. Cam opted not to defend herself as we drove off. That was fine as far as I was concerned. More doughnuts for me. After a few minutes in silence, I really couldn't take it anymore.

"How did you meet Ranger?" I asked. She took a deep breath without taking her eyes off the road.

"Normally," she finally said, "I would tell a carefully crafted lie. Instead I'm going to say that I would rather not talk to you about it."

"Why not lie?" I asked.

"Because you are probably one of the few people in the world who could check my facts with Ranger himself," Cam said to me. "And though I do not think he would tell you the truth if I didn't want him to, I don't think he would let you believe a lie, either."

"I think you're overestimating what Ranger thinks of me."

"I think I have a very good idea of what Ranger thinks of you," she told me. "He wouldn't spend so much time protecting you if he didn't care about you."

"It's obvious that he cares about me," I agreed with her. "I think that's where it ends, though." Camryn rolled her eyes.

"Ranger told me that you're perceptive."

"And?"

"I think that his judgment is really clouded when it comes to you, and I've only _really_ known him for about seventy-two hours. _That's_ how obvious it is."

"So you never met before interviewing for this job."

"That's not what I said," Camryn corrected me. "Please stop asking me about this. We were having a good time and this is going to ruin it. We have to spend the whole day together."

"Can you really blame me?" I asked her. "I've been compelled to let a stranger into my life and I know nothing about you. Would you be comfortable with someone you knew nothing about driving you about your business?"

"No," she answered, "but I also know how to take care of myself and watch my own back, so I doubt I'll ever be in the situation you're in." It seemed to me like she was trying to get a low blow in there. I opted to take the high road. Mostly because she was right. I was completely inept.

"Can you at least tell me where you met?" I asked her. We were stopped at a red light, so Camryn closed her eyes and took a deep breath in through her nose. When she opened her eyes again, it seemed like her efforts to keep calm were in vain.

"Look," Cam said to me, her voice flat, devoid of any expression. "I know that your world is a very small place. If you've witnessed anything outside of your bubble, it has been for a week on a vacation where you probably did nothing but sit on a beach drinking expensive drinks out of a coconut. Your idea of the bad things that happen in this world is limited to the small-minded gangsters and criminals that have threatened your life in this joke of a city. I'm not discounting your experience, but I'm telling you that when I say I don't want to talk about it, it is because the circumstances under which I met Ranger were more horrible than anything you could possibly imagine. You knowing does nothing for either of us." Finally she looked at me. Her eyes were hollow and dead. Her gaze was so unnerving that I had to look away.

"Yeesh," I muttered, unsure of what to say to that. Is there anything you even _can_ say to that? I wasn't expecting her to continue, but she did.

"I'm not trying to make you feel like I share something with Ranger that you don't," she promised me. "It's just nothing I'm willing to share with someone I know could give a fuck less about my past beyond how it affects their present."

I wanted to feel angry, but really I just felt shame. She was right. I was prying because I wanted to know more about the nature of her relationship with Ranger. She was clearly insane, and now it seemed that she hadn't gotten that way by accident.

"I'm sorry. I won't ask again."

"I appreciate it," Cam said, and then she looked back at the road. At that moment I felt like I was breathing after being underwater for ten minutes. No one had ever looked at me like that before, and I had been face to face with some crazies in my day, let me tell you.

OOOOO

Cam

My outward calm was starting to shatter. I knew that I only had a few minutes before I broke down. It always happened like this when someone pried into my past. Plenty of therapists over the years had given me plenty of great tools to keep people from asking. Hell, I couldn't count how many times I had said the exact same words I had just said to Stephanie. The problem is, people can't help being curious. It's in their nature. And I'm so clearly different.

Though I could stop them from asking, that didn't change the way their questions affected me.

"What's the fastest way to the jail?" I asked.

"Just keep going straight," Stephanie answered. I nodded as I gripped the wheel. At least she realized how distressed I was. I needed to get her out of the car. I needed to go silently to pieces in private for a few minutes. The relief I felt when she slammed the door and headed into the police station was almost orgasmic.

I pried my hands from the steering wheel and watched them shake. Hot tears were streaking down my cheeks. I pressed my hands aggressively to my face and tried to swipe them away, but they kept coming.

"Fuck …" I murmured. I didn't have time to break down. I was supposed to be watching Stephanie. Though I was sure she wouldn't come to any harm in the police station, there was no telling what could happen if she came out and I wasn't there to get her. Ranger was under the impression that she was now in significant danger because of what I did. If Ranger believed it, then I believed it.

I didn't want her death on my hands. I had enough of those. Suddenly I was aware of the feeling of the gun holstered under my jacket. I was armed. I was dangerous. It was going to take anyone a lot of effort to get to me or Stephanie, and I wouldn't go down without a fight. I never did.

I started counting backwards from one hundred. By seventy-eight the tears had stopped, by forty my hands had stopped shaking enough to allow me to grip the steering wheel once more.

My breakdown was interrupted by a knock on my window. Expecting to see Stephanie, I put on my scariest scowl and turned to face the intruder. I was surprised when I did not see her there. Instead, a Latino man with a hard stare glared at me through the window.

"Get out of the car," he ordered.

"Fuck that," I answered. He pulled a gun out of his waistband and showed it to me as if it was supposed to scare me. I reached for the handle and slowly put my hand on the door lock, knowing that once I unlocked it, I would have less than a second before he yanked the door open and pulled me out. It's what I would do. I wasn't sure if he was as skilled as I was, but I had to operate on the assumption that he was.

Almost as soon as I unlocked the door, I pulled on the latch and pushed out with all my might. I caught the intruder by surprise. The sound he made as the door knocked the wind out of him was extremely satisfying. He went down, and in the next few seconds I cuffed him behind his back and threw him in the back seat. His gun had fallen in the scuffle, so I picked it up for him before I folded myself back into the car, unloaded it, and put it in my waistband for safekeeping.

"That was way too fucking easy," I said to him as I looked at him in the rearview mirror. "You should be ashamed of yourself."

"You crazy … bitch," he gasped, still trying to catch his breath. "You're dead."

"Seems to me like you're the one in handcuffs," I reminded him as my eyes cut to the door of the police station that was connected to the courthouse. Obviously Stephanie had no idea what had just happened, so she was walking calmly towards me. It wasn't until she opened the passenger door that she started to look a bit worried. Had she not seen there was a third person in the car?

She really had no sense of awareness. It was no wonder Ranger wanted me on her.

"Who the hell is this?" Steph asked, utter confusion registering on her face.

"Beats the hell out of me," I replied. "Get in the car. We'll go find out." I was so thankful for this distraction that I was almost giddy, but I did my best to look subdued. No doubt, Steph already thought I was crazy. I didn't want to give her any more proof of that.

"Where are we taking him?" she asked me.

"Hm, that's another good question," I conceded. "You should call Ranger." The look on her face made me smile. It was a cross between disbelief and enthrallment. I knew the feeling. She dialed Ranger and put the phone to her ear. "Put him on speaker."

She complied. Ranger answered quickly.

"Babe."

"So, we've got a bit of a situation," Steph began, and I decided that I would let her do the talking. Ranger obviously had a soft spot for her, and the news would fall on his ears much more softly coming from her mouth instead of mine.

"Is everything all right?" The slight shift in his tone indicated that he was now on alert. I could practically see him pulling up the tracker on my car.

"We're fine," Stephanie assured him, "it's just that … well, there's a man handcuffed in the backseat and we're not exactly sure where to take him."

Dead silence on the other end. I couldn't help but laugh. This was the best possible distraction for the horrible headspace I had been occupying just two minutes ago.

"Do you wanna run that by me again?" Ranger asked.

"I'm going to kill these fucking bitches and leave them on your doorstep!" Our guest exclaimed from the backseat.

"Who the hell is that?" Ranger demanded, becoming more agitated.

"What's your name?" I asked our friend.

"Go fuck yourself." He was starting to squirm.

"Steph, do you wanna secure him a bit better? Maybe put his seatbelt on for him?" Stephanie nodded and put her phone down on the center console and reached to the backseat. She managed to get her hands on the cuffs behind his back and used her own set of cuffs to connect him to the handle above the back passenger door.

"Cam, you have ten seconds to explain."

"I think he might be one of those Latin Kings you're so worried about," I answered. "I was waiting for Stephanie outside of the courthouse when he came up to the door and showed me his gun. I knocked him out with the car door, cuffed him, and threw him in the backseat.

"You're not kidding, are you?"

"Wish I was," I answered. "Anyway, where would you like me to bring this asshole?"

"Have you got him secured?"

"As much as I can in this car," I answered. "Steph?"

"I don't think he's going anywhere. He's stuck in the backseat." She reached over me and flicked a switch on the driver door. "And the child locks are on."

"Smart," I complimented her. She nodded her agreement.

"I'm gonna put a bullet in your brains and fuck your dead bodies," our friend promised us. He looked really uncomfortable. Honestly it didn't look he would be able to fuck anything in that position. His arms were at an impossible angle, since his wrists were raised behind his head while his legs stretched towards the driver's side of the car behind him.

"Hear that, Ranger?" Steph asked. "You better decide what to do quickly or you're gonna miss all the fun."

"Don't bring him anywhere," Ranger told us. "Just park where you are. We're coming to you."

OOOOO

Stephanie

I couldn't believe how calm I was. Cam had this easy energy that would make any situation seem like just a scene in a sitcom. The speed with which she switched from dark and scary to light and playful was frightening in itself. I wasn't sure about how I felt about Ranger sticking me with someone who was so clearly unstable. At the same time, I kinda liked her.

She parked the car on a slow side street and took our friend's gun out of the waistband of her jeans.

"What exactly did you think you were going to do with this?" She asked him. Instead of answering, he just spit. Because of his awkward position, it didn't really get past the headrest of the passenger seat. "Can you believe this guy?" she asked as she turned to me. "Honestly some people just don't know when they're beat."

I wasn't so interested in playing games with the asshole. "Who are you?" He asked.

"I'm the least of your problems, bitch," he responded.

"Yikes," I said as I turned around and faced forward.

"Well since you're not a problem," Cam began, "do you care to share anything about the person who is?"

"Let's just say you should have never laid hands on little Glo De Silva. We're coming after you now. Your face is gonna look way worse than hers before we're done with you."

"I don't know why you've got me mixed up in this," I told him. "I didn't touch little Glo De Silva." I turned to Cam and glared at her. She just shrugged. It was like she had no fear. I didn't have that luxury. I was scared shitless, even though the guy was incapacitated in the back seat of our car.

Another black SUV approached us and parked right behind our spot. Ranger got out of the driver's seat, and Tank poured himself out of shotgun. Cam rolled down her window as Ranger approached it. Tank moved to the back passenger side door and opened it.

"Give him the key," Ranger said to me. I handed over my key to Tank and he worked on getting the second pair of cuffs off our prisoner. "What happened?" He was looking at me as he asked this and I just shrugged, deferring to Cam.

"Literally exactly what I told you over the phone." Cam responded. "I was waiting for Steph. He approached the car and told me to get out. I said 'fuck that', he pulled out his gun, I hit him with the car door, and here we are." Ranger looked unhappy. "Should I have left him there?"

"No," Ranger responded, clearly not amused, and opted not to say anything else. I could tell that he wanted to reproach her, but the truth was that she did the best thing she could have possibly done. She quickly neutralized the threat and then brought him to Ranger. Seemed to me what was really concerning him was the fact that he had the balls to approach the car in the first place. "Move. I'm driving."

"Why can't I drive?" She asked. Ranger just glared at her for a beat.

Silent and smooth, Tank got our friend out of the back seat and took him to the other SUV. He turned on the car and was idling. Clearly he was waiting for us to lead the way. Ranger was still glaring at Cam.

"I'm a perfectly capable driver," she told him.

"If you don't move, I'm going to make you," Ranger promised. We both narrowed our eyes at him.

"What, you think a woman can't drive a car?" I asked him. Ranger shifted his glare to me and I immediately backed down. I could understand why all of his men were so afraid of him. When he got that look in his eye, it was easy to believe that he would kill you without thinking twice about it. "Come on, Cam, he's driving."

Cam swiveled her head to look at me. Mock betrayal showed on her face and I shrugged at her. She wasn't getting back up from me this time. There was only so much I could do to control Ranger, try as I might. Cam sighed, got out of the car, and moved to the back seat.

"Where are taking him?" I asked.

"We have a few places where we can keep people we've apprehended," Ranger answered as he adjusted the seat a little.

"Doesn't seem like that's legal," I told him.

"I don't think anyone is going to be able to hear him complain."


	4. Chapter 4

Stephanie

I really wasn't expecting us to follow Tank, but that's what Ranger did.

Route 29 starts in Trenton and runs along the river. It's a beautiful drive, especially in the fall when all of the trees are changing colors. It had rained recently, so the Delaware was running high and fast, sweeping the yellow and orange leaves towards South Jersey. I was trying to enjoy it, but I couldn't help thinking about the cargo of the car in front of us.

Ranger was in the zone. I was hoping that Cam would have something to offer in the way of conversation, but she was disappointing. The car was completely silent until about twenty minutes into the drive when Ranger finally spoke up.

"How did he get so close to the car without you noticing him?" Ranger asked Cam. I could tell this was meant as a reproach, but Cam seemed to have a response ready.

"Because I'm a fucking executive assistant, not a security professional," she answered. I couldn't help but laugh. Ranger side eyed me and I looked right back at him.

"What?" I asked. "It was funny."

"It wouldn't have been funny if something happened to you," Ranger said seriously. I was never quite sure how to respond when Ranger acted like this. Yes, I know that my safety caused him a lot of anxiety, but he held me at such a distance I couldn't tell if he wanted my acknowledgment or appreciation.

"I don't think they're after Stephanie," Cam told him. "If they were, he would have waited until she got back in the car. Or maybe tried as she was leaving the building. I mean he had a loaded gun on him. He could have just waited and shot her."

"You're not helping your case," Ranger told her as he looked at her in the rear view mirror.

"Then fucking fire me," Cam suggested. "It's not like I caught the guy and brought him to you or anything. Jesus Christ." She leaned her elbow against the window and rested her forehead in her hand. I had never heard one of Ranger's employees speak to him like this, especially not in front of me. A muscle in Ranger's jaw twitched but otherwise he showed no sign that he had even heard what Cam said.

I felt like I should stand up for her. After all, it was kind of my fault that she was out of it when the guy approached the car. It was clear that she was dealing with something that I brought on with my questions about her past. If it were me in her position, I definitely would have thrown her under the bus. The fact that she hadn't made me like her a little more.

I was still considering this option when Ranger finally pulled off of 29 onto another road that led away from the river, back into the woods.

"This is starting to feel pretty sketchy," I thought out loud.

"Agreed," Cam piped up from the back seat. "And you have a meeting in forty-five minutes."

"Cancel it," Ranger ordered. Cam pulled out her phone and started tapping on the screen. "Actually, no – just push it back twenty minutes. That should give us time."

"But then it will run into your next meeting," Cam said, "and that one's your follow up with Pinto. That's a huge account."

"Just push them all back, Cam. Fuck."

"I don't know why I even bother making a schedule," Cam muttered as she glared at her phone. Ranger. "Since you're just gonna disregard it."

"Yes, well I wasn't counting on you and Stephanie bringing me a hostile gangster."

"Hey," I said, "you leave me out of this. I had nothing to do with it. Like Cam said, they're probably not even after me anyway. You probably put me in more danger sticking her on me." I knew Ranger wouldn't like that I said that.

"For real," Cam agreed, "I should be behind a desk executing the schedule."

"You should be wherever I tell you to be," Ranger reminded her as we finally came to a stop. "And if you can't handle that, this arrangement is not going to work." We had pulled up to a ranch style house. We weren't quite in the middle of the woods, but there were a lot of trees. The next house was probably about two hundred meters away, and it was just as small.

Everything was brown and blended in with the trees, except for the black cars, of course. The house itself looked very neat – made with large brown stones. There were a few small windows that were covered with brown curtains. Felt like a perfect place to hide a prisoner.

Tank got out of the car and then retrieved our friend from the back seat. Without a word, he dragged him towards the front door of the house, kicking and screaming.

"What are we doing here?" I asked.

"I just needed a place to keep him for a second while I try to figure out what to do," Ranger responded.

"Don't you think kidnapping one of them is just going to make it worse?" Cam asked as she got out of the car and headed for the door. Ranger and I followed her.

"I don't know how you can make it worse," Ranger told her.

"You mean how _you_ can make it worse," she corrected. Tank had left the door open when he walked in with our prisoner, so Cam just walked right in. Ranger and I didn't follow immediately. I stopped him and made him face me by tugging on one of his arms.

"Lighten up on her," I suggested, thinking that this might be a nice middle ground. I wanted to defend Cam, but I didn't want her to see me doing it. Ranger narrowed his eyes at me.

"Lighten up?" he asked. "That man threatened you with a gun, Babe."

"Actually," I reminded him, "he threatened _Cam_ with a gun. I was inside getting my body receipt." Ranger was silent as he reconsidered this fact. "She may be on to something when she says that they're not after me."

"Yes, well, the only way they would have found her was the connection to you," Ranger reminded me.

"Maybe," I agreed, "but this is retaliation for what she did to Genovese's girlfriend. I doubt they give a fuck that Genovese is going back to jail. In fact, they're probably glad about that. The guy was a scumbag and I'm sure Felix De Silva wouldn't want him near his daughter."

"Babe, the day you know what a guy like De Silva is thinking is the day I quit and let you take over Rangeman," Ranger told me. His tone was light, but there wasn't even a hint of smile on his face. "Until I know what is going on here, I'm going to proceed as if there is a threat to your safety. I would appreciate it if you would do the same."

"So it's just business as usual, then," I told him.

"Exactly."

"Even so," Ranger began, "I gave her a directive and she failed. She wasn't paying attention and she almost paid."

"She was … having a breakdown of some sort," I told him. He didn't say anything, but he gave me a look that said I should continue. "I asked her about how she met you. She told me she didn't want to lie but she wasn't going to tell me the truth, either, I pushed her. She gave this great speech about why I should never ask again and then I could tell she was having a hard time keeping her shit together, so I went inside without her."

The line of Ranger's mouth got very tense. He looked away for a second and then back at me. As usual I could read no emotion on his face. He ran his fingers through his hair.

"I wish you had told me that before I reprimanded her in front of you," Ranger said softly. There was remorse in his voice, and maybe a little sadness. I didn't know what to do to with this.

"Cripes," I muttered, "like I said. Lighten up."

OOOOOO

Cam

I followed Tank into the house and watched as he cuffed our guy to a bolt in the wall. Since I had only been working at Rangeman for a few days, I was not privy to information such as the existence of a place like this.

I didn't like it. It was small and dark and everything was brown. The fact that Ranger seemed to be really pissed at me even though I had done what I thought was a good job in apprehending the asshole and bringing him in didn't help my mood.

"You can't take it personally," Tank told me. I was so surprised to hear his voice that I jumped. My heart was in my mouth as he continued. "He's really unreasonable when it comes to her."

"What's the deal there, anyway?" I asked, glad for the distraction. Tank just shrugged. Obviously this wasn't something he was supposed to be talking about. "I mean, are they fucking? Because it looked like she was fucking the cop when I got to her apartment this morning –"

"I'm really not going to discuss this with you," Tank interrupted. "I was just trying to tell you shouldn't take anything Ranger does when Stephanie involved personally because, like I said, he is really unreasonable when she is involved."

"I didn't even do anything wrong," I muttered as I shoved my hands into my pockets and kicked the doorjamb lightly. "I think he's going to fire me."

"He won't," Tank assured me. I looked towards the window. Ranger was outside talking to Stephanie. He didn't look happy, but then again he never did, so it was hard to tell if I should be worried about my job. "I'm serious, Cam." Tank brought my attention back to him. "You're safe."

Tank was the only other person who knew how I met Ranger and why I was here. He seemed pretty confident, so I decided I would try to relax. To get my mind off things, I walked over to our friend. He was sitting on the ground, one wrist held over his head. I crouched down so that I could be at eye level.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"I ain't telling you shit," he responded, spitting at the floor near my feet. I felt one eyebrow rise as I reached into his pocket, looking for identification. His free hand reached out to swipe at me. I smacked it away and then slapped him across his face. It wasn't hard. He looked more shocked than hurt.

I reached into his pocket again. This time I succeeded in grabbing what was in there. He didn't have a wallet, but he had an EBT card that read David Hermosa.

"Nice to meet you, Dave."

"Don't fucking call me Dave," he ordered.

"Is it 'dah-veed?' or something?" I asked. He just nodded.

"That's a little too much for my mouth, Dave," I said, standing up. "Seeing as you threatened me with a gun, you're going to have to forgive me for not giving a fuck about what you want to be called." I gave him my brightest smile. "So … how is little Glo anyway? Last time I saw her she wasn't looking so good."

This got a rise out of him. He roared with rage and pulled against his cuff, trying to get to me.

"I don't know what you're so angry about," I told him. "Maybe you and your posse should have taught her better manners. She pointed a gun at me. There wasn't really any need for that. I wasn't threatening her. I was just trying to take Genovese in."

"That fucking scumbag is always getting her in trouble," Dave muttered. "I'll kill _him_ after I'm done tearing you apart and-"

"Yes, yes, fucking my dead body," I finished for him. "We already went over this in the car. What's your relationship to Glo anyway?"

"She's my sister," he answered.

"I can understand your rage," I promised him. "I have sisters. Or rather I had sisters." I was starting to get a cramp in my leg so I stood up. "But I didn't kill her, did I?"

"I don't know," he muttered. "Last time I checked she was still in surgery." That did make me feel a little bad, but only for a second.

"Who's in surgery?" Ranger asked as he and Stephanie stepped into the room.

"Little Glo De Silva," I answered. "Looks like I did a number on her. But you get what you pay for in this world. She would have killed me if I hadn't fucked her up."

"That gun wasn't loaded!" Dave told me. "She never keeps bullets in her gun. She just likes to scare people with it."

"Calling bullshit on that one," I corrected him, "seeing as I watched a bullet come out of it and go into Genovese's leg. That should give you some satisfaction at least."

"She shot him?" Dave asked.

"Not on purpose," I told him. "Anyway. Are you the only one after me, or do I have to kill all of the Latin Kings in Trenton?"

"I said I was the least of your worries in the car, didn't I?" He asked.

"How did you know it was me?" I continued. I was surprised that Ranger hadn't jumped in yet. Apparently he was OK with my interrogation methods.

"We didn't," Dave answered. "Before Glo went in for surgery, we asked her who did it. She said that she didn't know, but whoever it was was trying to bring Ant in. We figured it was the bounty hunter, but when we looked her up, she didn't match the description that Glo gave."

"How did you find pictures of me?" Steph interrupted.

"Are you kidding? You're the easiest person to find in the world. All I had to do was Google 'Trenton Bounty Hunter.' You're the first person who comes up – it's the article about the time you burned down the funeral home." I sighed. I was never going to live that down. "But we knew your name anyway because you've been chasing Ant around the past few weeks. The plan was to grab you and make you bring us to her. It just so happened that the two of you were conveniently together this morning."

"Not so convenient for you," I disagreed. I wanted to tell him that he would have had much better luck with just kidnapping Stephanie, since I was pretty sure that Ranger would trade me for her in a heartbeat. I didn't think that Ranger would appreciate me giving away that bit of information, however, so I kept my mouth shut. "How about this," I suggested, "you call off your gang, and I'll let you live."

Dave gave a bark of laughter. "You think that's my call? Even if it was, ain't no way. I'm not quitting until I see you lying in a pool of your own blood."

"He's very dramatic," Stephanie piped up.

"The only way you're getting rid of me is if you kill me," Dave said. I believed that this was true. If there hadn't been witnesses, or if I didn't think there was a gang that would come looking for me, I would have killed him. This didn't seem like the best course of action, though.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a pair of gloves while Ranger, Tank, and Stephanie talked about what to do next.

OOOOOO

Stephanie

"How long do you think we can leave him here?" I asked Ranger. Personally, I didn't want more Latin Kings to deal with. That was what we would get, though, if we held onto De Silva for too long. Ranger agreed with me.

"I have to figure out what to do with him quickly," he said. "The best place for him right now is in prison, but since we kidnapped him before he could really commit a crime, we don't really have much to go on."

When I looked at Cam, I could see that she was loading De Silva's gun back up. She had also removed her jacket. Ranger and Tank both had their backs to her as they looked down at me, so they couldn't see what was going on.

"What the fuck are you doing?" De Silva demanded. Ranger and Tank had barely had time to turn around before we heard the gunshot.

For a second I thought that Cam shot him, but when I looked at De Silva, I didn't see any holes or blood. Nope, the only blood was dripping from Cam's arm.

The crazy bitch had shot herself with De Silva's gun.

"He fucking shot me," Cam said calmly as she dropped the gun near De Silva. "You're really fucking lucky that I took my jacket off.

Ranger and Tank were speechless, rooted to the spot.

"Maybe we should call it in," Cam suggested. Upon looking closer, I saw that she had really got herself good, too. It wasn't just a graze. The bullet was firmly lodged in her arm. The only sign that she was in pain was the sweat forming on her brow. "Jesus, is anyone going to call the cops? I've just been shot."

I pulled out my cell phone and dialed 9-1-1.

OOOOO

Thirty minutes later, David De Silva was in the custody of the Hopewell Township Police Department, who looked like they were excited to see some action. This wasn't really the kind of place where people got shot. De Silva was swearing up and down that he had nothing to do with this and that he was the victim in this situation. His story was much less believable than the one that Cam had crafted for the police, though, which was that De Silva was trying to retaliate for an attack on his sister the night before, which was true.

She also admitted that she and Glo had gotten into a fight the night before over a guy and Glo had wound up getting hurt. Cam then bent the truth and told the cops that De Silva had grabbed her while she was at the police station, knocked her out, stolen the car, and drove her up here. She had fought him, and Ranger, Tank, and I had showed up just in time to save her from being killed, but not quickly enough to keep her from getting injured.

No one was believing De Silva when he said that he had been kidnapped and that the lunatic shot herself.

The illegal gun with his prints all over it was bagged, and Cam was sitting in the back of an ambulance, getting ready to be transported to St. Francis in Trenton to have her bullet removed. Ranger had asked her if she wanted him or me to go in the ambulance with her, but she said she would be fine and just asked that a fleet car be dropped off at the hospital so she could drive home when she was done.

Obviously Ranger had no intention of doing that. Instead, we got in one car to follow the ambulance while Tank returned to Rangeman.

Since Cam's condition wasn't critical, the ambulance did not have lights or sirens on. Ranger and I followed in silence. I think were both in a little bit of shock. Ranger looked like he was in over his head. He might have been. I had no idea, but I intended to find out by the time this car ride was over.

"Ranger," I finally broke the silence when we were approaching Trenton's city line, "she just shot herself in the arm without even thinking twice about it … like it was nothing."

"I know, Babe," Ranger told me. "I saw."

"No, you didn't see it," I corrected him. "That's how quickly it happened. I watched her load the gun and shoot herself without even blinking an eye. You didn't even turn around until she was pulling the trigger."

"If you saw her loading the gun, why didn't you stop her or say something?" Ranger inquired.

"Don't you dare turn this around on me," I said quickly. "I obviously didn't think she was going to shoot herself, or I would have stopped her. Or I would have tried, at least." Ranger just shook his head. If he thought I was going to let him blame me for this he had another thing coming. "Ranger, she just shot herself without _batting an eye._ " I felt the need to repeat this. "You can't possibly expect me to ride shotgun with a lunatic without at least a little bit of background. I won't do it. You'll have to have someone else watch me."

"Fine," Ranger replied, and I thought I was finally going to get some answers. "I'll put you with Hal until we get this straightened out."

"Seriously?" I asked. That wasn't what I had been expecting.

"Seriously," Ranger responded, "I'm sure Cam will be glad to get back to the job she was hired to do, anyway."

"Do you think the other men are going to want to be around her?"

"They do what I tell them to do," Ranger responded. "And I'll just make sure they don't let her get her hands on their guns." I didn't like where this was going.

"Ranger, I'm all mixed up in this now," I reminded him. "Felix De Silva is a big deal. She's put one of his children in the hospital, and the other in jail."

"These are both good reasons to make sure she stays in the building," Ranger reminded me.

"And what about me?!" I demanded. "Do you think I just going to get off free and no one is going to bother me about this?"

"You know that you are always welcome to my protection," Ranger reminded me, "but I can't force it on you. I would love for you to stay locked up in Rangeman until this is sorted out. You could stay with me."

Despite the tension of the situation, Ranger's wolf smile made an appearance. I had to remind myself to keep my eye on the prize. There was an opening here, and I knew that taking it would be pretty low, but I am not above fighting dirty.

"If you tell me what her deal is, I'll move into Rangeman for the next few days to lay low."

I could see that Ranger was considering this seriously. Every time someone threatened me, he offered to have me move in with him until things blew over. I never took the invitation, which always made his life much more complicated. Then, he had to track me and put a guy on me. He was silent for so long that I didn't think it had worked, but finally he spoke.

"If I tell you," Ranger responded, "you have to move into Rangeman until this is completely resolved. I don't want you leaving the building at all.

"I'll move in for a week and only leave the building for lunch," I tried to bargain.

"One week and you don't leave period," Ranger countered.

"I'll move in for one week and leave the building for dinner," I tried again.

"This is serious shit, Stephanie," Ranger told me. "I'm not haggling with you. This is the price. And I _will_ enforce these terms."

"Fine. I won't leave the building for a week."

"And you can't tell Morelli where you are," Ranger added.

"Not happening."

"Worth a shot."

"Out with it!"

Ranger sighed as he settled both of his hands on the steering wheel. He was glaring at the back of the ambulance as if it were its fault that he was in this situation. "Well, ask me questions." I was so excited that my heart was nearly beating out of my chest.

"Where did you meet her?" I asked.

"Sudan," Ranger answered shortly.

"When?"

"About ten years ago. I was carrying out a mission there with my unit."

"Was she working with you?"

"She was fourteen at the time," Ranger answered. "So no, I was not working with her."

"Then under what circumstances did you come upon her?" I asked, hoping that this question would force Ranger to speak in complete sentences. He sighed again, as if were preparing himself to dredge up something horrible that he really did not want to talk about. I hadn't realized that the circumstances might have been just as bad for him as they were for Cam.

"The country was in the midst of a violent civil war," he began. "My unit was there to infiltrate a cell of rebel terrorists and take out its leader."

"Did you?" I asked, unable to help myself. It was so rare for Ranger to tell me about his time in the Special Forces.

"Yes," he responded. I had to get myself back on track.

"What did fourteen-year-old Cam have to do with this?" Ranger's grip on the steering wheel was getting tighter. I could see the tension in his arms. His veins looked like they were about ready to pop out of his skin.

"Stephanie," he pleaded. This was not a tone I was used to from Ranger. He also _never_ called me by my full name. "Please don't make me talk about this. It was horrible."

"If you want me to stay at Rangeman for the week, you're going to have to," I told him. I had the vague sense that I was being cruel, but I ignored it. Ranger took a long breath in, but this time he did not sigh it out.

"She was a child soldier," he answered. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that. My chest started to get tight and I found myself almost wishing that I hadn't asked.

"The first time I met her … I was on the streets of Rubkona." Ranger had a far away look in his eyes, as if he was back in South Sudan instead of sitting in the car with me. "After we had taken out the rebel leader, we stuck around to try and restore some stability in the area. There was a group of mothers in the town who had started rounding up all of the boys who had been fighting nearby and trying to reintigrate them into society."

"Just the boys?" I asked. Ranger nodded slowly.

"The girls were left out to starve and die," Ranger responded. "No one would take them in. The inhabitants of the town wanted nothing to do with them. Said they were soiled. The girls often were taken as child brides. They were vulnerable to all kinds of thing … the elements … rape … some of them were captured and sold." He closed his eyes. "It was horrifying." I was beginning to have an idea of how Cam came into this.

"So you saved her?" I asked.

"The first time I met her, she was pointing an AK-47 at me," Ranger went on, ignoring my question. "She was with four other girls - but she was the only one with a gun. That was another reason why they were alone. The DDR programs would only accept children who turned in a weapon."

"DDR?" I asked.

"Disarmament, demobilization, reintegration," Ranger explained. "There are a few programs dedicated to helping child soldiers re-enter society, but the girl soldiers were rarely given weapons. She was the oldest and it seemed that she was in charge of them. She was the only one with a gun and she wouldn't leave them." He almost smiled at the memory. "I had the whole unit with me. I got them to lower their guns and she lowered hers."

"She told me that she was from Hamilton," I said to Ranger. He looked annoyed that I was forcing him to jump around in the story, but only for a second.

"The family that adopted her was from Hamilton," I answered. "I was able to get Cam and those four other little girls shipped over here. After that, I didn't have much contact with them. They were all placed with families in New Jersey."

"I would have never guessed that Cam was from Sudan."

"She worked really hard to assimilate, apparently," Ranger answered. "Also, I don't think she is completely Sudanese. One of her parents was from Europe – there on some kind of peace making trip, I don't know. She was born there, but her parents were killed when she was very young and she was taken as a soldier. At least that is the story she got." Ranger shook his head. "Anyway, the other girls didn't do as well at assimilating. As I said, I didn't have much contact with them, but about a month ago, Tank got word that one of them had died – a heroin overdose. We went to the funeral and found that Cam was the only one still alive. The rest of them succumbed to PTSD and killed themselves either on purpose or accidentally." Ranger's voice was getting thick with anger. He stopped to regain control of himself.

"It's not your fault," I said to him. He just shook his head.

"It was such a waste. Those girls survived one of the most hostile environments in the world … overcame so much adversity, just to die here where they should have been free."

"You gave them every chance you could."

"Did I?" He asked me, looking at me as we stopped at a red light. His eyes were full of pain and I wanted to reach out and touch him, but I didn't think that would help him at this point. "Did I really do everything I could for them?" He shook himself and looked back at the road. We were almost at the hospital.

"Anyway, I saw Cam at the funeral in New York and asked her what she was up to. She didn't tell me, but it didn't seem like it was anything good, by the way she was avoiding my questions. I gave her my card and told her that if she needed anything at all I would do whatever I could to help her. Two weeks ago she called me looking for a job, and now she's my assistant."

We parked in the hospital lot and Ranger quickly cut the engine. I could tell that he was anxious to get out of the car. I didn't know _what_ I was feeling. I was expecting that she was some kind of badass operative child prodigy with a kill list a mile long. I suppose her kill list could still be a mile long, but this wasn't the kind of information that made me feel privileged to know.

I wished that I hadn't asked. Why can't I ever just leave things alone?

Well, it was too late, now. The deed was done. I fell in stride next to Ranger.

"If you breathe a word of this to anyone, I will never forgive you," he said to me. He stopped me and held me by my shoulders, imploring me with his eyes as well as his words. "Promise me."

"I promise," I told him without hesitating and wrapped my arms around his middle. He put his hand behind my head and leaned down so that our foreheads were touching.

"It's one thing to trust you with my own shit, Babe," he said into my hair. "Trusting you with someone else's is something else entirely."


	5. Chapter 5

AN: THANKS SO MUCH YOU GUYS! I really love your reviews and wanted to take a moment to properly thank you. I hope you continue to enjoy.

OOOOOO

Stephanie

Ranger and I had to sit in the waiting room for a few minutes. Or rather, I sat in the waiting room. Ranger stood hovering over me. It was like all of his body was one tensed muscle ready to strike at anything that came near. It was making me anxious. After a few minutes, a nurse came out to us.

"Ms. Griffin says that the two of you can come in and wait with her if you're not going to leave," she told us.

"Griffin?" I asked Ranger as we walked back. He just shrugged. Camryn Griffin did not sound like the name of a Sudanese child soldier. I added that to the list of things I would ask about if I got the chance.

Ranger and I walked into the room that the nurse had led us to just in time to see a doctor making an incision in Cam's arm. Probably to get to the bullet that was lodged in her bicep. Cam looked on in fascination, a feat which I considered pretty impressive since I felt like throwing up and it wasn't even my arm.

"Shouldn't you be in an operating room or something?" I asked, staring at the wall.

"I offered," the young doctor responded, "but Ms. Griffin said she would rather not be put under general anesthesia, so we're working a bit more locally. She's a trooper."

"Do you think her arm will be OK?" Ranger asked.

"Oh, I think she should heal fine," he answered. "The bullet didn't hit the bone or do any major damage to the muscle. It's actually relatively superficial for having a bullet lodged in there. See how it's off to the side? She got very lucky." For some reason, I didn't think that luck had anything to do with it. Ranger stepped closer to get a better look while I stayed firmly rooted where I was. I believed that the doctor knew what he was doing.

"Can I keep the bullet?" Cam asked. "Is that an odd request?"

"It wouldn't be the first time someone asked me," the doctor said. The hole was now big enough for him to get in with a pair of forceps. I could hear the sound of flesh being pushed around and was pretty sure if I had eaten lunch I would have lost it. "I did a tour with the Army in Afghanistan. Those men loved having souvenirs. The worst was when it was shrapnel. The X-Ray showed that this bullet is still intact. Once I can grab a hold of it, I should be able to pull it out in one go."

"Just do me a favor and don't warn me when you're about to do it," Cam asked.

"Can you feel what I'm doing?" he asked. "You shouldn't be able to feel anything at all."

"A little," Cam answered. It looked like the doctor was about to put down his tools so he could give another numbing shot, but she stopped him. "No – don't. Please let's just get it over with." The doctor nodded and continued his search. There was a small grunt from Cam, and a second later, the doctor pulled out the slug.

"I'll have to give it to the police for their investigation," he told Cam, "but once they're done with it, I'll request that it be returned to you." She nodded. "Now, I can stitch this up for you and do a fine job, but you'll have a scar. Would you rather have someone from plastics take a look at it?"

"I don't care about the scar," Cam assured him, "just sew me up."

"Good call," the doctor agreed. "Makes you look tough."

"I need all the help I can there," Cam joked. She didn't take her eyes off the needle as the doctor dipped it into her skin and sewed the wound shut. After 9 stitches, he wrapped her up. I don't know how she sat so still. Watching it made my arms tingle.

"Keep it clean," the doctor told her. "Change the dressing three times daily. The stitches should dissolve on their own. It will itch like hell but try not to scratch it." He took out his prescription pad and scribbled something on it. "I'm writing you a prescription for vicodin."

"That won't be necessary," Cam assured him. "I'll get some ibuprofen on the way home."

"It's going to hurt like hell," the doctor assured her. "You're going to want something a little stronger, I promise."

"Thanks, but if it's all the same, I'll decide what goes into my body." I let out a snort of laughter and then covered my mouth. Yep, she decided what went into her body, all right. I found it amusing that she was more willing to put a bullet into it than painkillers.

Somehow, she managed to say that without sounding like a complete bitch. I added it to her list of accomplishments for the day and made a mental note to ask for tips on saying condescending things without making people want to slap you. The doctor handed her the prescription anyway. "In case you change your mind." Cam took the slip and shoved it into her pocket.

I couldn't blame her for not wanting to take narcotics. Her friend had just died from a heroin overdose after all. The doctor finished up and told her she was free to go, but not before giving her a sling and telling her that she had to at least wear that.

"That's an order I can follow," Cam said as she put the strap over her shoulder and settled her arm in. Then, she looked at Ranger and me. "Take me home, guys." For the first time since I walked into the room, her smile faltered and the exhaustion showed on her face.

Ranger put her leather jacket over her shoulders and the three of us made to exit the hospital. We were completely silent until we got in the car. I took shotgun while Ranger got in the driver's seat and Cam climbed in the back. After a minute, Ranger turned in the seat and looked back her.

"Are you insane?"

Cam sighed and slumped down.

"This is the second time in twenty-four hours that you've asked me that," Cam said to him. I wondered what she had done the first time.

"I question you much more now than I did last night, believe me," Ranger assured her. "But seriously, what the hell were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that we needed to dump Dave and the cops would be the easiest way to do it," Cam answered. "I didn't see any of you coming up with brilliant ideas. Now he's in jail."

"How long do you think that will last?" Ranger inquired.

"I don't really care," Cam responded, "I figured that we needed an immediate solution and could think more long term once we weren't looking at a kidnapping charge." She sat up straight again, reached into her back pocket with her good arm, and came up with her Vicodin prescription. Using her teeth and her right hand, she ripped it to shreds and then through it out the window.

"That's littering," I told her. She rolled her eyes.

"You can shut up or I'll throw _you_ out the window."

"I think that I could take you now that you have one arm," I countered as I turned around to make eye contact with her. She considered this for a second.

"Maybe," was her response.

"We could have thought of something that didn't involve you putting a bullet in your arm," Ranger assured her. "I just needed a second."

"It's a flesh wound," said Cam, "I'll be fine in a week."

"Yes, well, until you are at one hundred percent, I don't want you leaving the building," Ranger said with authority. "Stephanie will be moving in to keep you company." I heard a sigh from the back seat, and I couldn't tell if it was relief or exasperation. I honestly sure which of those two emotions I was feeling, either. All I knew was that being around this girl was mentally exhausting. Hopefully it wouldn't be so bad if we took away outside stimuli.

"Can we stop at a pharmacy?" She asked. "I need to pick up Ibuprofen and bandages." Ranger nodded and took a quick left turn. There was a CVS right there. Ranger pulled into the lot and cut the engine. We both moved to get out of the car when Cam stopped us. "I think I can buy pills on my own. I just need two seconds." There was a hint of pleading to her voice that made it clear that she did not want us going in with her so Ranger and I both backed down. I imagine that if she hadn't torn up that Vicodin script, Ranger wouldn't have been so quick to oblige her.

Once she was far out of earshot, Ranger turned to me.

"I need you to talk to her for me," he stated.

"About what?" I inquired warily.

"I just …" Ranger paused while he searched for the words. I was enjoying this vulnerable side of him, though I wished it wasn't Cam that was bringing it out. "I need her to know that I care about her well-being and it stresses me out when she shoots herself."

"Why can't you just tell her that?" I asked.

"Because it will sound like a reprimand coming from me," Ranger answered. "I have one tone and it is stern." That wasn't too far from the truth. Though in my experience, Ranger actually had two tones: stern and sexy. I couldn't imagine he wanted to use the second one on Camryn. At least I hoped he didn't. Besides the fact that she was at least ten years younger than us, I liked to believe that I was the only one on whom Ranger used his sexy tone.

"You could _try_ to act like a human," I suggested. "You could tell her what you just told me. That would be fine, I think."

"Babe, I don't want to take any chances," Ranger told me. "If she kills herself while she's working for me I'm going to lose it. You're a woman, you'll be able to relate to her."

"If you think I have anything in common with that psycho besides being a woman you are literally blind," I told him.

"Don't call her a psycho," Ranger scolded me. I sighed. He was right. She was unhinged, but it wasn't her fault. But hell, it wasn't _my_ fault either. I didn't want to have this talk with a ticking time bomb. "Come on, you're about to spend a whole week together. This will be a good time to bond."

I wasn't sure who this man sitting in the car with me was, but I was wondering what he had done with Ranger. Ranger was always sure of himself. He always knew _exactly_ what to do. Seeing him this lost was a little gratifying, but it was also scary.

"Why are you doing this, Ranger?" I asked him. "I mean, really. Why have you decided that this girl is now your project?"

"She's not my project," Ranger defended himself.

"What is she then?" I asked.

"She's my assistant."

"You don't need an assistant." That gave him pause for a moment. He knew that I was right. He was perfectly capable of handling his own schedule. Ella already did all of his personal shit for him. Cam was superfluous and he knew it. Ranger turned his head to look at the door of the pharmacy instead of at my face.

"I just don't want to fail her like I failed the other four," Ranger murmured softly. "I can't let her die. I want her life to mean something."

I wanted to tell him that Cam was probably safe from herself. Despite her general air of snarkiness, she had this vivacious energy that oozed from her every pore. I had felt it before when we were in the car alone after we kidnapped Dave. She was buzzing with life.

Then again, she _did_ shoot herself. I looked hard at Ranger's profile. It was clear that he was struggling to conceal some strong emotion. I wished that he would let me in and let me help carry some of this weight. In the back of my mind, a little voice told me that this was his way of doing that. He was asking for my help. That was as personal as it got for Ranger.

"Is it important to you that we bond?" I asked him.

"Yes," he answered on a sigh as he looked back at me. "It is."

"Why?"

"I don't think I've heard you ask "why?" so many times in the entire time we've known each other," Ranger told me. "Can't you just do it because I'm asking you to?"

"No," I answered. "because I'm still wary of this girl. Think about it, Ranger. She has virtually no contact with you for ten years. The second you show up in her life and say you'll help, she takes it, and you bring her into your life, no questions asked."

"If she asked, she must need my help." He told me. "And how could I refuse?"

"You act like she has no other way to get help if she needs it. What about the family that adopted her? They live in Hamilton, don't they?"

Ranger took a deep breath in as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I don't know, Babe," he murmured, his eyes closed, "I am almost as clueless as you are. You think that doesn't scare the hell out of me?" He shook his head. "I just don't think that I'm in a position to refuse her. If there is something that I can do for her, then I want to do it."

It was clear to me now that this was part of Ranger's seemingly never-ending quest to fix his karma. Hell, maybe this could be the last part of it. Maybe this could help him get a place where a real relationship could actually be possible.

The fact that the thought of getting to a place where Ranger and I could be in a relationship popped into my head surprised me. I had resigned myself to believing that it was probably never going to happen and that I was going to have to make do with his friendship. I thought I had come to terms with it. Morelli and I were finally starting to move forward a little bit, but I had a feeling that things were about to come to a screeching halt.

OOOOO

Cam

I walked out of the pharmacy with a bag full of Ibuprofen, bandages, and the most expensive chocolate bars the store had to offer. I made a mental note to order some real candy from New York the second I got in front of my computer.

Ranger and Steph were sitting quietly in the front when I let myself into the car. Too quietly. They had definitely just been talking about me. I couldn't blame them. That _had_ been a bit of a spectacle. In hindsight, I guess I didn't really need to shoot myself. There was probably something else that I could have done, but it seemed like the easiest fix to the problem, and I was sure that no one else was going to volunteer.

Whatever. I didn't have the time or the energy to worry about them. My arm was throbbing – it had been since the doctor started digging around with his forceps. I knew I should have asked for another shot, but I just wanted it done with.

I found myself wishing that I hadn't ripped up that Vicodin prescription so hastily. I popped open the pill bottle, poured out a handful, and put four in my mouth, washing them down with water. The rest went back into the bottle.

I could feel Stephanie's eyes in the rear view mirror.

"Chill," I suggested. "It's just Motrin. If I wanted to off myself I would have held onto the Vicodin."

"For some reason, I don't think you would use pills to kill yourself if you were going to do it," Stephanie told me.

"That's where you're wrong," I told her. "If I were going to kill myself, pills would definitely be the way. No aesthetic damage with pills. You could lay me out nice and pretty for everyone to look at."

"You sound like my grandmother."

"I'd like to meet her."

"Can we please not talk about this?" Ranger asked.

"What?" Stephanie inquired. "Suicide or Cam meeting my grandmother?"

"Both," Ranger answered. With this reply, Ranger gave a small smile and it seemed that the tension in the car was finally broken. "Talk about an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object."

"I don't think I'm unstoppable or immovable," I disagreed. "In fact, I'm very changeable. That's probably the source of most of my problems. I change my mind in a blink and end up shooting myself or jumping off a bridge."

"You've jumped off a bridge?" Stephanie asked me.

"Not yet, but I wouldn't put it past myself," I answered. "I try not to count myself out of opportunities. If circumstances called for it, I'm sure I would jump off a bridge." Steph turned around and shuddered.

"I don't think that you would," she told me. The way her eyes darkened made me think that maybe she had some experience with bridge jumping and I decided to change the subject. See? I'm malleable.

"So, were you serious about Stephanie moving in?" I asked Ranger.

"Yes," he answered. "I want her to lay low while we figure out this shit with the Kings." I was starting to feel a little bad. I guessed that it _was_ mostly my fault that she was in trouble now. It was one thing to get myself into shit, but dragging Stephanie into it was irresponsible. I told her so and she just laughed it off.

"Believe me," she assured me, "I have no problem getting into shit on my own. I'm sure it would have gotten back to me one way or another."

"Well," I began, "it will be nice to have another woman besides Ella around."

"You don't like Ella?" Stephanie asked.

"Oh no, I _love_ Ella," I assured her. "What is there not to like about Ella? She's actually a saint. We just don't have very much in common."

"Because she's a saint?" Steph asked.

"Exactly."

We stopped at Stephanie's apartment before heading back to Rangeman. She needed to get clothes and her hamster. I offered to wait in the car while they went inside, but Ranger wasn't having any of that, so I trudged in after them. Seeing as I had one arm in a sling, I wasn't really much help with packing up. My only contribution was grabbing Stephanie's gun from the cookie jar.

"No bullets?" I asked. The gun felt lighter in my hand than it should have.

"I guess not," Stephanie answered. "There may be a few in the bottom of my purse."

"You can take this week to practice with your gun," Ranger suggested as he hiked up a bag on his shoulder. Stephanie grabbed her hamster cage and we made our way out. "We'll go to the range."

"There's a gun range in the building?" I asked.

"Of course there is," Ranger responded as if that were the dumbest question he'd ever heard. "Did no one give you the tour?"

"You're the only one I've really interacted with," I responded. "I don't think the guys like me." Ranger just shrugged. I was glad that he hadn't tried to assuage my fears. Most likely, he knew that they actively avoided me. I couldn't think of a reason, though. Today's incident was the first time my freak flag made an appearance. The last few days I had been as normal as two normal things. I wondered if Tank had told everyone about what happened.

"I'll show you around," Steph promised. "I'm going to need _something_ to do. You at least work there."

"I'm sure I can find suitable occupation for you as well," Ranger assured her. Steph's eyes widened like she didn't want to find out what that suitable occupation might be. We all got back in the car and were on our way back to Rangeman when Stephanie's phone started to ring.

"Shit," she murmured. "It's Joe."

"Hot cop Joe?" I asked. Ranger cut his eyes to me in the rearview mirror but I ignored him. Any idiot could see that he was completely besotted with Stephanie. I actually kind of felt bad for him. Seemed like he was doing a lot of work with no reward.

"Don't answer it," Ranger ordered. "At least not yet. Wait until you're settled in at Rangeman."

"You just want to make sure he doesn't change my mind."

"Babe," he began, "changing your mind isn't an option."

OOOO

When we stepped out of the elevator on the fifth floor, Tank and Les were there waiting for us.

"Tank told us that you shot yourself," Les said to me as I sat down at my desk and tapped my mouse a few times to get my computer to wake up.

"I've got the bullet hole to prove it," I told him.

"That's pretty crazy."

"Crazy is as crazy does," I said with a fake southern accent. He didn't laugh. Either he didn't get the joke or he didn't think it was funny. I was going to go with him not getting. Ranger's men were big and strong, but they weren't always the sharpest tools in the shed. I was fucking hysterical.

"De Silva was charged with assault with a deadly weapon," Tank told us.

"I thought his last name was Hermosa?" I asked, remembering the name on the EBT card.

"He has a few last names," Tank responded. "Hermosa is the one he uses when he wants to be mistaken for a respectable human being, but everyone around here knows that he is Felix De Silva's son. Anyway, there isn't any chance of bail as there are a few ongoing investigations right now that have him as a person of interest. When Trenton PD found out that he had been apprehended, they asked Hopewell to hang onto him."

"One less criminal on our streets," Ranger said approvingly. "One less psycho for us to worry about."

"What happens if they start to believe his story, though?" Tank asked.

"Unlikely," I assured him. "Who would think that little old me could get one up on a dangerous gangster?"

"Has there been any word on Gloria De Silva?" Stephanie asked. Tank shook his head.

"I haven't heard anything, yet, which probably means that she at least isn't dead."

"Shame," I murmured as I opened up Ranger's calendar to take a look and figure out the damage. Pretty much the whole day was in the toilet. I guess we would just have to try again tomorrow. There was no way I was going to be able to get these meetings rescheduled today. "She was a pain in the ass."

"Maybe you should have shot _her_ ," Les suggested with a stupid laugh. I gave him the meanest side eye I could manage but didn't say anything.

"Probably for the best that she didn't," Stephanie said. I had a feeling she was a real party pooper when it came to shooting people. It didn't really bother me. I had made fun of her for not having bullets in her gun, but the fact was that I pretty much never carry bullets in my gun, either.

I think our reasons are very different, though. She's afraid she might hurt other people. I'm more afraid of what I would do to myself.

"Cam, why don't you show Stephanie to the apartment that she'll be using," Ranger suggested as he walked back towards his office. "Call Ella down and have her give you a key to one of the empty ones."

"You mean she's not staying with you?" I asked. This didn't get me anything but the sound of a door slamming. I rolled my eyes and dialed Ella's extension. About three minutes later, she was standing in front of me with a key in hand. She was really the most efficient person on the planet.

OOOO

Stephanie

Since Cam wasn't going to be able to help, I left Rex at her desk and said I would come back to her later. She didn't mind at all, and said that an office pet was exactly what this place needed. We hopped into the elevator and I thought this might be a good time to have the talk that Ranger had asked of me. I decided to wait until we were inside the apartment, though. Something told me that Cam wouldn't like talking about this in a public space.

"Here you are," she told me as she opened the door for me.

"Thanks," I said, "do you want to come in for a minute?"

"I should really get back to work," she said.

"It will only take a minute. Please." She sighed and walked in, clearly impatient to not be alone with me.

"What's up?"

"I just want to make sure that you're OK," I told her. Cam narrowed her eyes, but more in a confused way than a bitchy way.

"What do you mean?" She asked. "You were there when the doctor told me I would be fine."

"I don't mean physically," I corrected her. Now I got a tilted head to go with the narrowed eyes.

"I'm not following," she told me. I sighed and plopped down on the couch. It wasn't nearly as comfortable as the one that Ranger had in his apartment, but it would do fine for pigging out and watching bad television.

"Ranger is worried about you."

"Is he?" Cam asked as she sat on the opposite end of the couch.

"Of course he is," I answered. "He may seem like a robot, but he is actually a human. You shot yourself. He's worried."

"I thought that I explained my reasoning pretty well. What reason would he have to be worried?" Cam asked, and I resisted the urge to shake her. Was this bitch for real? There was no way this could be for real.

"All right, let me try to explain something to you," I began softly. I could feel myself slipping into a condescending tone, but it was too late to stop myself. "Healthy, happy people don't shoot themselves because the situation might call for it."

"I'm failing to see your point."

I resisted the urge to sigh. It would have been a lot easier if I could tell her that I knew where she came from and why she was here, but I promised Ranger that I wouldn't breathe a word and I assumed he meant to Cam as well. It didn't help that I felt like the questions she was asking were meant to determine how much I knew. I would have to tread carefully.

"He cares about his people." I decided to go for a broader approach, hoping that if I didn't make it too personal, she would let her guard down a bit more quickly. "I've honestly never seen anyone who cares more for his team than Ranger does. You're a part of his team now and that means you're under his protection. You hurt yourself and he just wants to make sure that you're OK. _Youre_ really the only person he can't protect you from and it scares the hell out of him."

"What did he give you to have this talk with me?" Cam asked. I could feel her becoming wary. Obviously she wasn't the most trusting of people. I couldn't blame her for that. After all, Ranger _had_ told me things that she didn't want anyone else to know. She definitely wouldn't appreciate that Ranger had aired out her past because I had leveraged his urge to keep me safe against his loyalty to her.

"Protection," I said with a shrug. "You've gotten me into a nice big mess and Ranger just wants to make sure that I get out of it alive." I hoped playing on her sense of guilt would cause her to ease up and relax and my strategy paid off. She did seem to deflate at that.

"I'm sorry," she murmured. "I'm just not used to dealing with people who can't take care of themselves." I narrowed my eyes and she immediately backtracked. "I didn't mean it that way!" She exclaimed, putting her hands up. "It's just that … I've moved in circles where people generally are … what I'm trying to say is I didn't consider the consequences my actions would have for you or your inability to cope with … ugh this is coming out all wrong." Cam was clearly trying hard to pick her words better so as to not offend me, and I stopped her because I knew she wasn't going to be able to.

"I know I'm hopeless," I assured her, putting a smile on, "there's no need to remind me."

"Oh good," Cam breathed a sigh of relief. "I didn't think that I was getting out of that one." She stood up.

"I'm serious, though, Cam," I said quickly as I stood up as well. "He's worried about you. He wants you to be safe here. Just … let us know if you need something, OK? And try not to shoot yourself again. It really stresses him out." Cam actually laughed at that.

"I'll try but I'm not making any promises." As she got to the door, my phone started ringing again and a small smile curled her lips. "Is that the boyfriend?" I looked at the phone and saw that it _was_ indeed Morelli calling. I just nodded, my mouth was suddenly too dry to speak. "Good luck with that one. Let me know if you need anything." She closed the door behind herself and I was alone with my phone.

"Better to just get it over with," I said to myself as I hit the answer button.

"Hey, Joe," I greeted.

"Why haven't you been answering me all day?" He asked, sounding frantic. "Is something wrong? Where are you?"

"I've had a very busy day," I told him, "but I am fine. There's nothing wrong with me. I'm at Rangeman." There was silence for a minute as Morelli reined in his temper.

"Do you want to tell me about your busy day, Cupcake?" He inquired. I could hear the effort he was making so I decided I wasn't going to make this worse for him.

"Well," I began, "it started with David De Silva threatening Cam with a gun outside of the police station near the courthouse, and ended with Cam shooting herself in the arm on purpose. I really don't think that you want to know about everything that happened in between, seeing as you're a cop and all."

"She _shot_ herself?" Morelli asked. I was glad that I put in that little tidbit of information. I had a feeling it would offer enough of a distraction from what _I_ was up to.

"Yep," I answered. "Like it was the most natural thing in the world to do, too. She's really kind of scary. She didn't even cry. She did it and then just looked at me and asked me to call an ambulance, cool as a cucumber."

"I really don't like the kind of people Ranger brings around you," Morelli told me. "He has no regard for your safety. Anyway, when are you coming home?"

"Next week," I answered bluntly.

"I'm sorry," Joe began, "I think there must be something wrong with the phone. I thought I heard you say that you're not coming home for a week."

"I'm not," I confirmed. "I'm staying at Rangeman. There are gangsters after me and Ranger thinks this is the safest place."

"Of course Ranger thinks it is the safest place," Joe answered, surprisingly calm, "but who is going to protect you from him?"

"I think that I am perfectly capable of doing that," I told him. "Besides, he didn't say that I couldn't have visitors."

"If you think I'm setting foot in that building you are crazier than Ranger's assistant," Morelli told me. That kind of hurt. I would have expected Morelli to want to see me no matter where I was, but it seemed like his dislike of Ranger went a little deeper than his love for me. "Are you really in that much danger?"

"I think I really could be," I promised. "We got that guy that threatened Cam to talk to us a little bit. He said that the original plan was to take me and have me help them get to her. He thought that he had gotten lucky when it appeared that we were together anyway, but he didn't count on Cam being completely off her rocker. She shot herself to get him arrested."

"I don't want to hear this," Joe told me. "Just be careful, Cupcake. I love you."

"Yeah," I responded, and we disconnected. That was way easier than I thought it would be. Joe didn't yell at all, and I wasn't sure if I should be worried about that. For now I was going to take it as a blessing. Today had been draining and I didn't think I would be able to deal with Joe's feelings as well.

OOOOO

Cam

I was sitting at my desk wrapping things up for the day. All of the meetings that were supposed to happen today had been set up for tomorrow, and my other miscellaneous tasks had been completed as well. I had just turned off my computer when the phone at my desk rang. The screen said it was Ranger calling from his office so I picked up.

"Yes?"

"Can you come in here for a minute?" I said I would and walked back to Ranger's office. He was sitting behind his desk, which was completely covered in paperwork. He didn't look as stressed out as the mess made me feel. I added organizing his desk to my list of things to do tomorrow.

"What's up?" I asked as I sat down in the chair in front of him.

"I just … needed to talk to you about something," he answered. "Something personal." I did my best to not let confusion show on my face. "Stephanie knows … about how we know each other."

The silence returned to my ears. The same silence that had fallen the night before when there was a gun to the back of my head. My fingers itched, my legs burned, my whole body felt like it was on fire, but my head was in a vacuum. It was really the strangest feeling.

I used every ounce of will I had to keep still.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"I told her."

"Why?"

"In order to make her agree to stay here until I get this mess you made cleaned up," Ranger responded. I narrowed his eyes at him. I could see what he was doing and it wasn't going to work.

"That is the lamest excuse I have ever heard and I won't accept it," I told him. "There has to be a better reason for you to let a complete stranger know about my very difficult and traumatizing childhood. I made it very clear that I didn't want anyone to know."

"You did, which is why I'm telling you now," Ranger stated. "I figured it would be better for you to-"

"Don't pretend you thought about what would be better for me," I cut him off. He looked surprised. I could tell that he wasn't used to being interrupted. "You thought about what would be better for her. My feelings on the matter didn't come into play at all." I clenched and unclenched my hands. The cracking of my knuckles sounded like far-off gunshots. "If you had thought about what would be better for me, you would not be bringing it up right now."

I could feel it building inside of me. The instincts that had kept me alive in Sudan were flooding back. The instinct to kill or be killed. Suddenly, I was back in Rubkona, standing on the blood-drenched sand. I had run out of bullets, so I had killed the young boy fighting next to me for his. I was digging through his pockets, looking for anything I could use before I left his dead body lying in the street to be decimated.

A shiver ran through me. I could see Ranger's mouth moving but I couldn't understand what he was saying, even though I could hear him perfectly. Before I knew it, I had catapulted myself over his desk, my burning hands outstretched. They found his neck as he toppled backwards. I could feel my fingernails breaking his skin and I smiled. I saw true terror in his eyes for a moment before he broke my hold and flipped me over.

He was much stronger than I was. When I was a soldier, I was one of the bigger ones. Here I didn't have the size advantage.

"Stand down," Ranger ordered. I brought my knee up and caught him in the stomach. The blow wasn't hard, but it was enough to get him to let go of me. I scrambled out from under him, my hand going to the small of my back, where I had placed my gun after getting back from the hospital. I stood with the gun in my hand.

"Cam," Ranger barked. I could understand that. That was my name – the one I had chosen.

"I'm sorry," I murmured as I raised the gun to my head.

"NO!" Ranger shouted as he got himself off the floor to lunge towards me.

I pulled the trigger and the hammer clicked on an empty chamber. I pulled it over and over and over again and nothing happened. I heard myself scream, but didn't feel its echo in my body, I could see Ranger, but I couldn't feel his weight as he took me down and wrestled the gun from my hand.

Footsteps trampled towards the door. It burst open. There was a large man standing there. He looked familiar. Tank. It was Tank. More voices. What were they saying? Hands all over my body, holding me down so I couldn't hurt anyone else. That was good.

I tried to breathe. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that I was having an episode, but it was a remote corner. The rest of my mind was in revolt.

"I'm sorry," I whispered to the little boy that I left dead in the sand. He was looming over Ranger's shoulder, his face smudged with dirt and blood.

He smiled at me, and I knew he wasn't angry and he didn't need my apology. He was free.


	6. Chapter 6

Stephanie

I had just come out of the elevator when I heard someone scream. The sound made my blood curdle as the small hairs on my neck stood on end. It had come from the direction of Ranger's office. My mind registered that it was Cam's voice, but my body was reacting as if it were Ranger. I realized that I had never heard him scream. Not like that. The pain and rage evident in the sound almost made my heart stop.

Tank ran by me. He was not as stunned as I was. I shook my head and followed. Tank obviously reached Ranger's office first, but I wasn't too far behind him.

Ranger and Camryn were on the floor, covered in blood. I hated blood. As I stood in the doorway, Ranger looked up at us. It was clear that it was taking some effort to keep her pinned to the ground as she struggled.

"Her stitches ripped," he promised us. "This is all her blood." I didn't know if I was relieved or disturbed by this. It would have been a bit better if it were both of their blood. As it was, I was afraid that Camryn might bleed to death right there on the floor. In the back of my mind, I knew it wasn't that bad, but the smallest amount of blood can spread so thickly. It was terrifying. There was splotches on Ranger's face and hands, and she was completely covered in it.

"Someone call Bobby," Ranger ordered, his hands on Cam's shoulders as he straddled her hips. She was still thrashing, and she might have landed a few blows if she weighed a few more pounds. As it was, Ranger's body weight on top of her was enough. "We need to sedate her."

A growl that came from deep within Cam's body suggested that she did not agree with that idea.

Tank took over getting in touch with Bobby as I walked into the room. I crouched down at Cam's head and put my hands on both of her temples to try and still her.

"What happened?" I asked. It seemed that my touch was soothing her, but it was possible that she had just exhausted herself.

"I told her …" Ranger trailed off, and I immediately knew what he was talking about.

"Why the fuck would you do that?" I asked.

"Because," Ranger answered, "she is too smart. She would have figured out that you knew eventually. You are terrible at hiding things. I wanted her to know from me."

"Looks like you did a great job at breaking the news," I said to him. "Are you all right?" Now that the shock had worn off, I noted some nasty fingernail gauges on Ranger's neck.

"I'll be fine," he promised. "Right now we need to worry about getting her arm closed up. She's bleeding everywhere." He wasn't kidding. Dark red blood pooled out of the bullet hole in her left bicep as she continued to struggle against us, even though her resistance had decreased substantially since I arrived.

"Bobby will be here in five minutes," Tank said to Ranger.

"That's a long time to bleed like this," I thought out loud. Ranger nodded his agreement.

"I have a few spare t-shirts in the bottom drawer of my desk," he said to me. "Grab one and start applying pressure." I quickly got up and noticed that once my hands were not resting on Cam's head, she started to struggle much harder against Ranger.

"No one is going to hurt you," Ranger said firmly. She said something in a language that I couldn't understand. I grabbed two shirts and hustled back to Cam's arm where I pressed down on her wound. She called out in pain and breathed loudly through her teeth. "Well, no one besides Stephanie is going to hurt you."

"That's a good idea," I muttered, "talk shit about me to her while she's having a psychotic break. That will be great for this bond that you want us to form." As much as I wanted to joke, my presence really did seem to calm her. I briefly wondered why but decided to take it as a blessing. I wasn't going to turn my nose up at anything that could help at this point.

Now that the bleeding was under control, I took a chance to really look at her. Every muscle in her jaw and face was tense and her skin was turning red in splotches. She was grinding her teeth together so harshly that could practically hear her wearing them down to nubs.

"Should we put something in her mouth to keep her from biting her tongue off?" I suggested. Ranger actually laughed at that.

"If you want to put your fingers near her mouth, be my guest," he said. "I like my hands on my body." He had a point there. Though she seemed to be calming down it was evident that she would lash out at us the second Ranger climbed off of her.

I sat there pressing the t-shirts against her arm while Ranger held her down with his weight for about minute or so. Her protests were becoming weaker – most likely because she was getting tired. I was surprised that she could resist against Ranger for as long as she had. Tank was clearly ready to jump in if needed.

More footsteps came down the hall and soon Bobby's figure filled the doorframe.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Don't know," Ranger answered, "but she ripped out her stitches and is bleeding all over my carpet." There was Ranger trying to sound like a hard ass. I saw right through him though. This upset him. It was disturbing. Cam was practically foaming at the mouth with anger and the need to get her hands on him to do violence. Obviously a person wanting to kill him wasn't a new experience for Ranger, but I was pretty sure none of his employees had ever tried to strangle him.

"Try to hold her still," Bobby said as he opened the pack he had brought with him and pulled out a hypodermic syringe. When Cam's eyes fell on the needle, hell broke loose all over again.

OOOOO

Cam

Somewhere in the back of my mind, the impulse telling me that I was having an episode was getting stronger, but it hadn't gained enough of a hold to calm me down, yet. I was still thrashing with all of my might against Ranger, which wasn't getting me very far. He was strong. He had my hips pinned down with his hips as his hands roughly held me down at the shoulders.

Perhaps a lot of women might have been glad to be in this position with someone who looked like Ranger. A man, however, had not touched me, since I had been given to a general to fuck after I'd spent a day running through mine fields high on amphetamines that had been forcefully injected into my body to make me feel "brave."

That was probably why the little light in the back of my mind that was trying to beckon me back to reality was fully extinguished when I saw Ranger's man pull out the needle.

A scream so animalistic that it actually shocked me a bit escaped my mouth as I renewed my attempts to break free with vigor.

"Get the fuck off me!" I demanded, not sure if I was speaking English or the Arabic spoken in some parts of Sudan. I could feel tears streaming down my face but I didn't care. Maybe if I cried they would take pity. Worth a shot. Unfortunately, my crying sounded more like I was being impaled on a spike than facing a small prick from a needle. It almost hurt to hear myself. It felt like my heart was being ripped out.

Since my arms weren't going anywhere I tried moving my legs instead. They were much stronger. When I kicked out and bucked my hips, I was rewarded by Ranger lurching forward a little bit. I raised my head towards his and our skulls collided. Unfortunately, it seemed to hurt me a lot more than it hurt Ranger. He swore loudly but did not let me go. I could see that he was bleeding from above his eye and a small smile came to my lips.

"Hurry up, Bobby," I heard a voice cut through the chaos. Bobby must have been the man with the needle. I tried to calm myself. Whatever I was doing, it scared them enough that they thought needles were necessary. If I complied, they would leave me alone. That was usually the way these things worked. Fall in line and avoid punishment. I closed my eyes as tight as I could.

"I won't fight anymore," I said, though I wasn't sure to whom. The line between reality and delusion was so blurred. I heard Ranger's voice, but I saw that General's face looming over me. His hands were holding me in place. What was his name?

Too late, I recalled that I wasn't supposed to try to remember things like that. Those were the details that were supposed stay lost in my memory, never to be brought up again. Details like that brought me back to the desert of Sudan. We were on our way to South Sudan, to Rubkona. There was no road, there was nothing but sand and sky. It was a stupid place to try and escape, but Yaya had tried anyway.

He hadn't gotten far. By the time they got him back to the camp, it was dark. We had lit a fire to keep us warm. The general brought all of the children together – there were almost a hundred of us. We stood in lines as Yaya stood bound before us. I was first in line because I always did my best to make sure I did everything they told me as quickly as I could. He handed me a walking stick and put a gun to my head.

"Hit him," he ordered. I swallowed hard and approached him. Quickly, I gave him a half-hearted whack across his arm that earned me a slap across the face. "Hit him or I blow your brains out," he ordered again, pointing the gun at my temple. I said sorry to Yaya as best I could with my eyes. Then, I gripped the cane as hard as I could in both hands and swung it with all of my might. It caught Yaya in the head and he went down, motionless.

Every child in camp took a turn with that stick, and Yaya died that night.

No one else tried to escape after that. That was when I realized it was better to acquiesce. Sometimes I forgot that lesson.

"Please no needles," I begged. "Please. I won't fight anymore."

OOOOO

Stephanie

"Well, at least we know next time all we have to do is pull out the hypodermic syringe and she'll chill the fuck out," I thought out loud. Bobby still had sedatives at the ready, waiting for Ranger's command. Ranger ignored me, instead turning to his men.

"We'll take it from here," Ranger assured them. I was still pressing the t-shirts to Cam's arm trying to staunch the flow of blood. "Bobby, I'll call you in a bit once she is lucid and her bleeding has slowed down. And I'm sure I can count on your discretion."

Tank and Bobby both nodded wordlessly before leaving the room. Ranger was still straddling Cam, though it seemed like that might not be necessary anymore. Better safe than sorry.

"This is my fault," he thought out loud. "I should have kept my mouth shut." I didn't know what to say to this. We were in uncharted waters here. It seemed like Ranger might be realizing he might be in over his head, but maybe he was too proud to admit that this girl was not something he could handle.

"You couldn't have known that this would happen," I told him. "She's unstable." It didn't feel odd talking about Cam like this because it was clear that nothing was getting through to her. Eyes glazed over, she stared motionless at the ceiling, catatonic. Ranger let go of her shoulders and got to his knees, obviously reluctant to release her from under his weight.

"Still," he said again, "I shouldn't have said anything. I thought I had a handle on the situation but I completely miscalculated." He shook his head. "She wanted to kill me."

"I don't think it was you she wanted to kill," I promised as I moved myself into Cam's field of view. No recognition flashed across her face.

"Sure felt like it," Ranger said as his hand went to his neck. "I should have Bobby check these out. Fingernail gauges are nasty." Ranger looked towards Cam's hands. They looked clean, but you never know.

"Do you have a first aid kit in here?" I asked. "I'll clean them up for you." Ranger looked down at Cam one more time before getting all the way to his feet. Unsurprisingly, Cam stayed completely still. I briefly wondered how long it would take her to come back from wherever she was while Ranger went into the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out a tiny box with a red cross on it. He handed it to me and we traded jobs so that he was now applying pressure to Cam's arm. Now, I'm no EMT, but I know how to use one of those little alcohol wipes.

Ranger winced as the alcohol stung his broken skin. I put one hand on his shoulder to steady him and he visibly relaxed under my touch. He didn't take his eyes off Cam in the middle of his floor on the bloodstained carpet, but his hand rose to touch mine.

"How can I justify keeping her around my team when she is clearly a danger to herself and others?" Ranger asked me.

"I don't think it's one of those things you can justify," I told him. "You either do it or you don't. You're in too deep now. I know you're not just going to toss her out on her ass."

"No, I won't do that," he muttered as he finally took his eyes off her to look at me. Ranger's eyes are very dark brown, and when he's feeling strongly about something, they seem to darken to black holes that threatened to suck you in and never allow you to see the light of day again. The thing was, though, I wasn't sure if I would ever need to see the light of day again if I could somehow just be trapped in Ranger's gaze forever.

The tractor beam from those eyes was pulling my face closer to his. I leaned my forehead against his, and I think our lips may have touched if Cam hadn't rolled over and started dry heaving.

"I'm burning this carpet," Ranger muttered. Knowing that there wasn't really much left to save on the floor, he made sure that she was positioned so she wouldn't choke on her own vomit and die if anything did start coming up. "And doing a complete demo on this office."

I looked around. It wasn't really that bad. Ranger's chair had been overturned as well as most of the contents of his desk in the scuffle, but that seemed to be it. Ranger didn't really keep personal items in his office.

"Ugh …" Camryn groaned as she tried to sit herself up. "I feel like I've been hit by a train."

"You should see the other guy," I chuckled. Cam's eyes opened wide as she quickly turned her head to look at Ranger behind her. It seemed like the quick movement caused her some pain because she winced and went all the way back down to the floor.

"Stay still," Ranger urged. "You ripped your stitches out when you tried to kill me."

"Did I really try to kill you?" she asked. She had closed one eye as if she was having trouble focusing on Ranger's face.

"You don't remember?" Ranger asked.

"When I get like that, it's hard for me to tell what's real and what I'm remembering," she answered. She was now lying on her back, either unaware of all the blood or not bothered by it. My money was on the second option. "What got me to stop?"

"You seemed really against being sedated," I answered. "As soon as you saw the needle Bobby was getting ready, you freaked out a little bit harder and then calmed down." Cam just nodded. It didn't seem like she was going to elaborate on what had just happened. A feeling of disappointment came over me.

I can't help myself. I'm from the Burg. Gossip is like air.

"Should I call Bobby back in to stitch you up?" Ranger asked. "Do you think you could handle that without tearing down the building?" Cam lifted the T-shirts that were wadded against her arm to inspect the wound.

"I suppose someone has to do it," Cam murmured. Ranger pulled out his cell phone and sent a text message. "Do you think he could just staple it shut? That happens sometimes, doesn't it?"

Once Bobby entered, Cam stopped talking completely. It was easy to see that she was embarrassed and ashamed of her behavior. At least she was capable of some normal emotion. Once again, she refused the shot that would numb the area, and then watched intently while Bobby ran the needle through her skin to pull it back together again.

The composure with which she could watch her body get stitched back together was extremely disconcerting. I caught Ranger's eye and I could tell that he was perturbed by it as well. Since I had seen Ranger take a bullet, I knew that his tolerance to pain was reasonably high as well, but even he did not seem comfortable with the scene in front of him. The thought of Ranger taking bullets brought me back to that night in my apartment with Scrog. I shuddered and tried to push it away.

"You really need to make sure that you don't open these up again," Bobby told her. "Every time is like a small trauma. You're lucky that the bullet didn't do major damage. It would be a shame to get away with shooting yourself only to have complications disable your arm."

Cam nodded, but didn't say anything but a murmured thank you. After another few minutes, the three of us were alone again.

"What the fuck, Cam?" It was odd to hear Ranger, curse. He had been doing it more in the past two days, and I realized that his new assistant probably wasn't great for his blood pressure. Seemed she was doing the exact opposite of what an assistant was supposed to do.

"I'm going to pack my shit and go," Cam stated as she stood up and turned to leave the room. Since Ranger was much farther away from the door than I was, I had to stand in her way, which scared the shit out of me. It felt like I was half of her size. She looked down her nose at me.

"You're pretty brave," she said.

"You've got orders not to open up your stitches again so I think I like my chances."

"If you haven't noticed by now," Cam began, "physical discomfort doesn't really bother me."

"If you think that I would let you hurt her to get out of here, you're an idiot," Ranger assured her. "You're even more of an idiot if you think I would let you out on the street with innocent people."

"I'm not a threat if people aren't digging into my past, bringing up shit that triggers me," Cam promised him. "The majority of the population isn't as nosy as this one here." She jerked her head towards me.

"Maybe you're not a threat," Ranger agreed, "but there is a threat out there against you and I told you that you're going to lie low until it is resolved."

"I'm not afraid."

"That's what concerns me." Ranger came over and took his place next to me between Cam and the door. "Take a seat, Camryn." Cam rolled her eyes, huffed, and then turned around. She picked up one of the overturned chairs and sat down in it, her back towards Ranger and me. The two of us shared a glance before walking to the other side of his desk. Neither of us knew what to do here, but we were ready to try at least.

Ranger opted to sit on the edge of his desk rather than behind it, and I came up next to him, leaning against the solid mahogany.

"Have you seen someone about this?"

"Multiple someones," Cam responded. At least she seemed open to talking now. "They've all told me the same thing. I need to come to terms with the things that I've done and try to re-enter society as best I can. So, here I am trying."

"It doesn't seem to be working."

"What are you talking about?" Cam responded. "Everything was fine until you told Stephanie and then told me that you told Stephanie."

"You shot yourself," I reminded her.

"Are you still stuck on that?" She asked, though her tone was a little lighter than it had been a second ago. "Also, the two of you should consider having a child. You have this tag team thing down pat. Look at you both." Ranger and I glanced at each other. We did have very similar body language at the moment – leaning against the desk, arms crossed in front of our chests, eyes hard, jaws set.

The thought of having a baby with Ranger made my knees wobbly, but I managed to stay upright.

"You're deflecting," I said to her.

"It's a defense mechanism," Cam told me. "You sound like one of my shrinks."

"Cut it out," Ranger ordered. The small smile disappeared from her face and she sat up a little taller. For a brief moment I got a glimpse of the soldier who was used to snapping to attention whenever a commander spoke, and I felt sorry. I think Ranger realized it, as well, but it would be hard for him to just stop giving her orders. "Walk me through what just happened."

"No."

"I need to understand."

"You cannot understand."

"Try me."

"I just said no."

"I cannot have you around my team if I don't understand what it is going on with you."

"Then I'm going to leave." The two of them just stared at each other for a second. I really thought that she had Ranger beat, but he always has another trick hidden up his sleeve.

"Whatever you're running from," he began, "it's going to catch up with you eventually. You know you are safest here, which is why you got in touch with me." This seemed to hit home as the smug smile that Cam had been wearing disappeared. "So, you can work with me and help me help you, or you can leave and keep running. Your choice."

Cam looked up at the ceiling. It looked like she was having a pretty heated internal debate. I would have given a lot to hear what she was thinking at that moment. Luckily, I didn't have to wonder for too long. She was in a sharing mood.

"Whatever my reasons for coming," she began, "you had yours for taking me in. If you have any hopes of redemption pinned on my rehabilitation, please let them go. I'm beyond saving. I'm too fucked up. I'm just here for a job."

"Then do your job," Ranger suggested. "And stop making a fucking scene everywhere you go." Cam stared at him for a beat, then got up and left the room. Ranger did not try to stop her this time. I turned my head to look at his profile.

"That seemed a little harsh," I stated.

"I've seen people like her before," Ranger assured me. "She will push as far as she can until someone pushes back. She needs to learn her boundaries early or she'll be manipulating everyone into doing whatever she wants because she knows that we're afraid of her."

"Are you afraid of her?"

"Terrified," Ranger answered.

"You fooled me."

"Hopefully I fooled her, too," Ranger said as he finally turned to look at me. "That was intense, Babe. Are you all right?"

"I'll be fine," I answered. Ranger stepped towards me and pushed a curl behind my ear.

"I hate that I have dragged you into this."

"Yeah," I agreed, "if you hadn't told her to meddle with my skip, we wouldn't be in this mess right now. As it is … how long do you think it is until the Kings realize I'm here?"

"I'm sure they already know," Ranger assured me. "But this building is secure. No one is getting in without my permission." He stepped towards me and engulfed me in his arms. "You'll be safe here." I nodded into his chest as I took a calming inhale. The smell of Bulgari green overwhelmed my senses and I found myself wondering how much of this scent lingered on his clothes and how much of it was on his skin.

These weren't healthy thoughts, so I tried to push them away, but didn't have any luck. What managed to stop me was the look in Ranger's eyes. Even though he was looking at me, it was easy to see that he was not focused on me. He was thinking about Cam and what had just happened, and who could blame him? The marks on his neck were still raw and red. I found myself getting really heated about them. Now I could understand how he felt when he came upon me with a black eye or a bloody lip.

"Where are you sleeping tonight?" he asked me.

"By myself," I answered him. "It … what just happened was really emotionally exhausting. Any comfort I look for from you ... It wouldn't be fair." I was having a hard time finding real words for what I was feeling. Honestly, I couldn't stop thinking about Cam, either. It was so easy now to tell that she was in pain constantly. Though I had only known her a few days, she had shown genuine concern for my safety and me and I felt like I owed it to her to at least try to think about what she was going through.

Ranger looked like he was about to answer me when his cell phone buzzed. He answered, and about a four seconds later his eyebrows knit together. He grabbed me by the hand and dragged me out of his office. He was heading for the control room.

When we got there, Hal was looking at a screen that showed the street outside of the building's front entrance. There was a man standing in front of the camera. He was tall, with light brown skin and hard, dark eyes. His aquiline nose sat over a mouth that seemed a little too big for his face.

"That's Felix De Silva," Hal told us. "Looks like he's trying to get in."

"Well tell him to fuck off," I suggested.

"Tried that," Hal answered. "He's not going anywhere until he speaks to you."

"He might have to settle for Cam," Tank said as he looked at another screen. Ranger stepped over to him to see what he was looking at. I followed, and witnessed Cam heading down a flight of stairs.

"Tell me she's not heading towards the front entrance," Ranger pleaded, though he knew just as well as the other men in the room exactly what camera he was looking at.

"She must have a death wish," Hal murmured. I wanted to tell him how right he was, but I kept my mouth shut.

OOOOOO

Cam

When I saw Felix De Silva on the screen, my body just kind of took over. It was one of those moments when instinct told me to move, so I did. I rarely ignored what my gut was telling me. It had saved me so many times that I decided I would trust it implicitly.

Also, I knew that I didn't have much time before someone alerted Ranger to the situation so I figured better to act first and ask questions later. Better to ask forgiveness than permission, right? Besides, Ranger was getting ready to kick me out anyway so I might as well make a grand exit.

When I got to the street, Felix was standing in front of the videocom. He looked at me and at first he seemed confused, but then realization dawned on his face.

"Let's go," I suggested as I jerked my head in the opposite direction, turned and started walking away from him.

"I'm waiting for the bitch bounty hunter," Felix stated.

"You're going to be waiting for a long time, then," I told him without stopping, "because the man who owns this building will never let her out here while you're standing there. Come on."

"You shouldn't be trying to go anywhere with me," Felix told me, but I could tell that he was following me even though I wasn't looking at him.

"I think you're right," I told him, "and you should be even more scared of me considering what I did to your daughter. How is her face, by the way?"

I knew that would work. I heard the footsteps behind me get quicker before I felt his hand on my shoulder. He turned me around to look at him and gave me what I supposed he thought was a scary look. I always felt a little sorry for people who tried to intimidate me. They had no idea what they were dealing with.

"You're going to pay for that," he promised me.

"I bet."

"I don't know who you think you're dealing with," Felix began. "Please, allow me to educate you."

"What? Right here in the street?" I asked as I put my arms up and looked around. It was a quieter part of the city, but there were still some witnesses around. It was the middle of the afternoon.

Felix pulled out a small knife.

"Let's see how brave you are once I've got you by yourself. My car is right there."

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Don't worry about it. Just get in the car." I decided to humor him. Hell, what was the worst that could happen? He would kill me? I knew, of course, that there were worse things than dying. Furthermore, Ranger was going to hold the fact that I had put his precious Babe in danger over my head forever unless I did something to fix it.

"OK," I said as I walked towards the car, opening the passenger door for myself and sliding in. "You have to promise not to fuck with my arm, though. I shot myself to get your son locked up and my friend told me to be careful about opening the stitches again."

OOOO

Stephanie

I was honestly really surprised when Ranger didn't immediately charge down the stairs after Cam. Of course, there was no way that he could have predicted that she would actually get in a car and leave with him.

He stared at the screen, his face impassive. Most likely, he was trying to hide the shock. This girl was a goddamn maniac.

"Do we have any trackers on her?" Ranger asked Tank.

"None," he answered. "Her phone is still in the building." Ranger's jaw tensed.

"Maybe we should call the police?" I suggested.

"He hasn't done anything illegal," Ranger responded. "She willingly got in the car with him."

"We don't know that," I told him. "He could have threatened her."

"I don't know if you've met Cam," Ranger began, "but I'm pretty sure that she never feels threatened." We both knew this wasn't true, as about twenty minutes ago she had been thrashing around on Ranger's floor in terror. I chalked that up to a sort of protective short-term memory loss on Ranger's part.

"Should we be going after her?" Tank asked. It was clear to see that was the last thing he wanted to do, but obviously if Ranger gave the order he wasn't going to say no. It's not like they weren't used to chasing crazy women all over Trenton. Not that I was crazy, but I definitely wasn't very easy to keep up with. Cam might be a little more difficult. She really was unpredictable.

"No," Ranger answered. "She got herself into this and she can get herself out of it. I'm not risking any of you to indulge her whims." There he was trying to sound like a hard ass again, but I knew him. I could see the gears of his mind turning. He wouldn't send any of his men after her, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to go out there himself. Unfortunately, he now had no idea of finding out where she was, besides maybe tracing the plates on De Silva's car.

I put my hand on his chest and said, "I don't think there is anything you can do now." He shrugged away from me, giving me a look that said he would address that statement later. Yeesh.

"I'm doing a search on known addresses for De Silva," Tank stated, knowing that Ranger wasn't just going to let her go, even if he wasn't going to send one of the men after her. "He left heading south. Maybe we can figure out where he is taking her." As he said this, Tank turned up the volume on the police scanner. I thought about calling Morelli to see if he could help and suggested that to Ranger.

"No police," Ranger told me, "we don't know what she's planning on doing. It might not be something she wants the police to know about." I had a feeling that Cam didn't think that far ahead, but Ranger had a point. However this ended, Cam most likely would not want to be picked up by police. Morelli was a good cop. If he thought that something illegal was going on, he would feel obligated to stop it.

"I guess all we can do is wait then, and see what happens."

OOOOO

Cam

I felt surprisingly calm. Traffic was slow in downtown Trenton, but as we made our way from the center of the city, the car was able to move a little bit more smoothly. He obviously was planning on taking me somewhere before doing whatever he was going to do with me. This was good. This meant that I had time.

I didn't have a lot on me. Ranger took my gun when I tried to blow my brains out, and I didn't normally carry anything else that could possibly do damage to someone. I had my handcuffs stuffed into my waistband.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"You'll find out when we get there," Felix answered.

"I don't really like surprises," I told him.

"Well I don't really like it when my children are in the hospital or jail," Felix responded, "and right now that's where they are. So you're going to have to deal with being surprised."

"I'm surprised that you're not worried you're going to end up in the hospital or jail," I said to him as I turned my body to face him. "Are you scared of me?"

"I'm not scared of anyone."

I realized that we were leaving the city, heading west. That meant that we were heading to Pennsylvania. I supposed that this should not have surprised me since the car had Pennsylvania plates. That meant that there would be a bridge to cross over the Delaware. A plan started to formulate in my mind.

I rolled down my window and put my seatbelt on.

"Are you warm?" Felix asked.

"I get hot when I'm nervous," I told him.

"It's good that you're nervous. You should be." As I suspected, we got on Route 1 heading west. I could see a bridge in the distance. I checked the speedometer. Of course, he was going about fifteen miles per hour over the limit. Perfect.

I wondered if I would be fast enough to get a cuff around his wrist and attach him to the steering wheel, but thought that might be pushing it. I estimated that I had about three seconds to do what I wanted to do. If it were any longer than that he would be able to fight me off and correct the course of the car.

Nope, better to just get us off the bridge and hope the fact that he wasn't wearing his seatbelt would work to my advantage.


End file.
